The Fleming Chris Dercon (1958) was head of the Haus der Kunst in Munich from 2003 to 2010. Prior to that he worked in Ghent, New York and Rotterdam (Witte de With and Boijmans Van Beuningen). As of March 2011 he is director of Tate Modern.

In one of his last exhibitions in Munich, Tronies, he compared the portraits of Marlene Dumas with Flemish and Dutch old masters. The exhibition bore the stamp of the Flemish museum director: Dercon goes looking for strong storylines and unexpected links that put contemporary art in a new perspective.

What is Dercon’s vision of the ideal museum?

“A combination mix of factory, warehouse, university and borderline experience.”

He says that the public pours into the big museums like the Centre Pompidou or Tate Modern in vast numbers. It wants preferably to be led by the hand, wants an answer to every possible question. Museums have become learning cathedrals, a sort of help desk.

In his opinion museums have to have big crowd pullers, but they also need niche programmes. Anything in between will be problematic. “Medium is the problem”.