Ploegstraat

Studio building

Behind the Antwerp zoo and Central Station, the former Dominican monastery and adjacent residency building on Ploegstraat comprise MORPHO’s main location.

The Studios

The former Dominican monastery houses 30 artists across individual and collective workspaces, as well as MORPHO’s residency studios and the offices of our partner organisations Kunsthal Extra City and Antwerp Art.

The Refectory

The Refectory is the project space of MORPHO’s artists-in-residence in the former Dominican Monastery. The name refers to the former function of this dining room for monks and derives from the Latin refectorium, “a place one goes to be restored”. The Refectory hosts about five presentations per year, in line with the dates of the Antwerp Art Weekend and Borger, the shared nocturne of art spaces in Borgerhout and Zurenborg.

The Monastery Garden

A rare green oasis in the city centre, the Monastery Garden has had many lives and uses. It was previously squatted by an anarchist collective and animated by various neighbourhood initiatives. The artists now occupying studios in the Monastery have been collectively repairing and reviving the overgrown garden. A wild, yet cultivated collaborative effort, that reflects different personalities and overlapping trajectories from past and present. The garden is also regularly opened to the public of our partner Kunsthal Extra City.

We are grateful for the caring work of artist Eline De Clercq, who has been reviving the Monastery Garden’s original medicinal plants, and for the collective efforts of many others.

Studio occupants

Antwerp Art
Dittmar Viane
Eline De Clercq
Elmo Lê Van
Emme Heijtenis
Ingrid Schildermans
Irène Monteiro
Iris Carta
Joachim Badenhorst
Jóhanna Kristbjörg Sigurðardottir
Joost Elschot
Jordan Heuten
Kunsthal Extra City
Mara Matthyssens
Michèle Matyn
Natalie Gielen
Seppe Elewaut
Siska Van Daele
Thore Vervloesem
Vincent Wilms
Younes Faltakh
Wim Van Malcote
TICK TACK
Marina Meijer
Thomas Born
Alex Daems
Marijn Ottenhof
Jonas Bluhm

Plant donors

Anny De Decker, Katrin Kamrau, Diny Josepha Joanna, Marc Vanderleenen & Matipa Josse, Eva Steynen, Botanische tuin Gent, Philippe Verdonckt, Wim van Malcote

Surface

1500 m²

Starting date

2017