Le Chat, a cartoon character by the Belgian artist Philippe Geluck, will soon have a museum in Brussels. The 4,000 m2 site will also house the works of painters and visual artists

The Belgian designer Philippe Geluck presented his project Thursday Chat Museum, which will open in Brussels in 2023 to celebrate his favorite character whose albums have passed to millions of copies.

The Museum of Chat and Drawing humor will be located in the historic center of the Belgian capital, not far from the Royal Palace, in a contemporary building whose construction from 2020 will be financed by the Brussels-Capital region.

"A child's dream"

In front of the press, the cartoonist and the minister-president of the region, Rudi Vervoort, signed Thursday the partnership agreement which should give birth to the project, estimated at 16 million euros, according to a statement from the region. For Philippe Geluck, this museum is "the realization of a childhood dream" .

It will allow Brussels, home town of the designer, to become "the third city of cartoon in Europe" , after London and Basel (Switzerland) where is located a museum of caricature and drawing humor.

The museum divided into three sections

On 4 000 m2, in a seven-storey building designed by the Belgian architect Pierre Hebbelinck, the future museum will consist of three main sections.

The first will trace the 40 years of life of the Cat - created by Geluck in 1983 - through multiple media (screens, sculptures, boards, sketches, etc.).

The other two sections will be devoted to artists admired by the Belgian: painters and visual artists on one side, Picasso, César, Soulages, draftsmen on the other, who will be entitled to temporary "tribute exhibitions" .

Among cartoonists, Philippe Geluck wishes to honor notably the American Gary Larson, the French Sempé and Siné (which he was a close) or the Belgians Kroll and De Moor.

Interior arrangements financed by the artist

To build the collections of the future museum, Geluck will donate paintings, sculptures and drawings of the Chat.Il is committed to contribute 4.5 million euros to finance the interior, an amount collected from sponsors and patrons, representing about a quarter of the total investment.

Since 1983, twenty-one albums of Chat have been published, sales reaching 14 million copies by incorporating books, best-of, diaries etc., according to Casterman publisher.

The notoriety of Geluck exploded in France when he became, in the 1990s, columnist in a television show animated every Sunday by Michel Drucker, with whom he worked twelve years. The architect selected for the museum, Pierre Hebbelinck is also known in France, especially because it was chosen this year to transform the Guimet Museum in Lyon into a place dedicated to dance and circus arts, by 2021.