Cartoonist Philippe Geluck is set to open a museum dedicated to his character Le Chat (The Cat) in Elsene in early 2028. The museum will be housed in a former porcelain factory on Waversesteenweg and is being funded entirely from private sources.
Geluck announced in April that he was abandoning earlier plans for a museum on the Kunstberg. The plans, in collaboration with the Brussels region, dated back to 2015, but delays and a rise in the budget that Geluck had to cover himself made the project financially unviable. A search was launched for a new location to establish the museum using private funding.
The former factory covers 2,300 square metres and will house a permanent collection dedicated to Geluck’s graphic universe: drawings, sketches, canvases and sculptures, as well as radio and TV clips. There will also be temporary exhibitions on leading figures in humorous illustration and the cat in history.
This place will be buzzing; I hope that with all my heart
Architect Francis Metzger is overseeing the restoration of the building, which dates from the 1830s and part of which has been listed since 1997. He expects the work to take just over a year. “This place will be buzzing; I hope that with all my heart,” Geluck said at the presentation.
A foundation will manage the museum, relying exclusively on private funding. The investment is estimated at €2 million. The proceeds from the sale of the monumental sculptures of Le Chat déambule will also go to the museum, which is still seeking new patrons and partners.
The first Le Chat comics appeared in Le Soir in 1983. Since then, several albums have been published, including some in Dutch.