32 
MuseoMag   N°I 2024 
In this series of photos, Éric Chenal explores the empty rooms of the fourth floor of the Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart. 
© 
éric 
chenal 
EMPTY SPACE IN THE MUSEUM 
An exploration in words and images 
As we prepare to reopen the permanent collection 
of modern and contemporary art on the fourth floor 
of the museum after several years of renovation 
works, we take a moment to reflect on what empty 
spaces in institutions like ours can mean and how 
artists have responded to them. Éric Chenal’s 
images capture the transient state of the rooms in 
question, offering a visual exploration of the notions 
considered in this piece. 
As much as museums are known for their 
exhibitions, where curators transform spaces 
into rich experiences filled with artworks, objects, 
relics and historical documents, empty walls and 
unfinished floors are also part of the museum 
experience. Because our temporary exhibitions are 
just that – temporary. 
Hidden behind no entry signs and plastic sheets, 
there is a whole world that visitors rarely get to 
see. In this liminal, in-between space inhabited by 
workers, curators and conservation experts, objects 
are carefully packed, walls are taken down or 
put up and layer upon layer of paint is applied in 
preparation for the next project, where the space is 
again filled with content, each exhibition an exercise 
in storytelling and worldbuilding. 
Yet absence can be presence too. When it is 
emptied of objects, the framing device that is the 
exhibition space itself comes to the fore. It draws 
attention to what is otherwise invisible – the social 
institution behind the art on display, the architecture 
that shapes our perception. How does this space 
influence the way we see the works on show? 
ABSENCE AS PRESENCE 
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov address this in their 
installation The Empty Museum (1993); a replica 
of a gallery in a classical museum with burgundy 
walls, velveteen benches and pools of light on the 
walls where the paintings would normally hang. 
Bach’s famous organ piece Passacaglia plays in the 
background. By replicating the space of the museum,