Behind the scenes: visitor assistants

Behind the scenes

VISITOR ASSISTANTS

Don’t call them custodians or attendants, and certainly not guards. The visitor assistants are M’s hosts. They know everything (or at least a lot) about the works on display, but they can also point you in the direction of the lift or the toilets. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

Sorry sir, I thought you were an artwork!

Gunnar Machtelings has been working at M since its opening in 2009. Alex Emenogu became a visitor assistant in 2013. Jona Jamart started working here in 2024.

Jona: “M has four full-time visitor assistants. The workforce also includes daily contract workers and student employees. We don’t wear a uniform, but you can recognize us by our ‘Can I help you?’ badges.”

Gunnar: “When someone enters the room, we make brief eye contact and greet them. This signals that they are welcome to approach us with any questions or inquiries.”

Alex: “The most common question we get asked is: can you tell us something about this work or this artist? And usually that’s something we can do: for every new exhibition, along with the guides, we are given a guided tour by the curator and/or the artist.”

Gunnar: “Occasionally, people ask, ‘Are you the artist?’ I usually reply, ‘No’ (chuckles).”

Alex: “Once a visitor approached me and scrutinized me from head to toe. When I asked him if there was anything I could help him with, he reacted in astonishment: ‘Oh sorry sir, I thought you were an artwork!’”

Publieksbegeleiders in museum M Leuven — © Marie Dreezen voor M Leuven

Pommelien Thijs

Alex: “Thanks to the mix of old and contemporary art, M attracts a very diverse audience. It’s like a music festival with both the Rolling Stones and Pommelien Thijs on the programme. And so we get the widest range of questions.”

Jona: “Explanations for contemporary works are not always available, but you have to be able to answer visitors’ questions if they want to know more about them. What the artist wants to say may not be what you see in their work. But I find this personal interpretation – the effect an artwork has on you – equally important.”

Gunnar: “In the ‘M-Collection’, there’s a piece by Willem Oorebeek, called ‘Catalogue Blackout’. It’s a series of sheets of black paper, but when you look at it from below, you can see many more details. I sometimes suggest to people that they bend their knees to get a better view of the work. Once I got a response of ‘Oi, I haven’t come here to exercise!’ In such situations, the most important thing is to maintain a friendly demeanour.”

Alex: “But we also get asked questions about historic art. In the first room, there’s a triptych by Michiel Coxie. We usually display it in a closed position. If people ask why, we explain that triptychs like this were also only opened on Christian feast days in the past. Very occasionally, someone tries to open the panels. Fortunately, they are firmly closed, but then, of course, we immediately intervene.”

Gunnar: “The blend of antiquity and modernity can sometimes be perplexing. In this first room, there is a contemporary work by Patrick Van Caeckenbergh in among older religious paintings – but if you examine it closely, you see that he has incorporated pornographic images into it. One time a grandmother unsuspectingly asked her grandson which painting he wanted to look at. The boy promptly pointed to that very piece. It was only when they were standing right in front of it that his grandma understood what they were looking at. So she hurried him off to the next room pretty sharpish (laughs).”

Never sit down

Alex: “The museum is divided into zones, each consisting of a few rooms. St. Peter’s Church is a separate zone, and it is also very beautiful, although it is a bit colder compared to the rest of the museum.”

Jona: “We have one visitor assistant per zone, and we switch zones every hour. This lets people move around. We only sit down during the quietest periods. Sometimes it can be tiring. As can working all day long in artificial light, especially when it is dimmed. Visitors will then ask us about it – ‘why is it so dark in here?’ – but it’s necessary for fragile works.”

Gunnar: “People also sometimes complain about noise or other visitors. The M app offers an audio guide, but people with hearing problems sometimes turn it up too loud. We ask them to lower the volume a bit or to use headphones.”

Jonah: “Happily, we also get a great many positive comments. Fascinating exhibition, beautiful scenography... We pass this on internally. We’re the first point of contact for visitors, so for the museum, it's worthwhile information.”

Mona Lisa moments

Jona: “At M, groups visit every day, with or without a guide. We make sure that there are never two groups in the same room at once, and that guides don’t block anyone’s view while explaining.”

Gunnar: “A lot of school groups come here, and not all teachers can handle them. Adolescents in particular sometimes prefer to hang out on a bench. As long as they’re not disturbing other visitors, that’s fine. We keep an eye on things, but we don't want to be too strict. At M, everyone should feel at home.”

“For big exhibitions, M works with time slots, but even then, it can get very crowded. Sometimes you even have Mona Lisa moments – when people press together to be able to see that one masterpiece. But after closing time, we have that work all to ourselves. Those moments are priceless.”

Alex: “That's another thing we do: shortly before closing time we go through all the halls to check that nobody is left behind. Sometimes we have to go all the way round two or three times, which is quite a hassle.”

Gunnar: “When people leave, they sometimes ask me for recommendations of where to find food and drinks. I always suggest Barbóéék in M, and then I wish them a good day (laughs).”