The Musée du Petit Format d’Art Contemporain in Viroinval

Originally: an international biennial

Since 1981, every 2 years, a selection of artists from around the world is invited to propose a work on paper whose subject and technique are free. Participation guarantees the exhibition: the works are always framed with the same principle, same frame, same master key, same hanging, for equal valorization of each.

Originally, at the end of the 1970s, the artist Gabriel Belgeonne shared with a few people, all art lovers, his address book and a concept: easy and inexpensive exchanges by post. This idea assumes that the format and thickness are limited hence the choice of a DIN A4 format. From these constraints, the essence of the biennial emerged: the Small Paper Format.

Following the significant number of donations of unsold works from artists who responded to the first invitations, a museum was created to house them.

A contemporary art museum

For a long time without premises, the MPFAC developed the concept of a “suitcase museum” allowing works to travel and meet a wide audience through traveling exhibitions.

Today located in the cultural center of the entity of Viroinval, the museum houses an impressive collection of more than 4,500 works on paper by internationally renowned artists, which it reveals on various occasions:

• exhibitions with activities for schools
• initiation sessions for adults
• a permanent exhibition room open 250 days a year.

The collection offers a broad panorama of techniques on paper and current artistic approaches.

Enjoy the experimental scenography of its permanent exhibition: there are more than 250 works to discover in its drawers.