A Hybrid place
As an archive and museum, the Mundaneum preserves and promotes more than 6 kilometres of documents! As a place of reflection, we perpetuate the utopian and humanist ideas of our founders: Paul Otlet, Henri La Fontaine and Léonie La Fontaine.
Our credo since the beginning? Peace through knowledge.
— Archives and collections
An archives center
As a private archives centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Mundaneum’s missions include the conservation, processing, inventory, digitization, development (through collection and acquisitions), as well as the promotion of collections that belong to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in order to ensure accessibility to researchers and the general public.
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A museum space and a place for reflexion
The Mundaneum offers temporary exhibitions every year on themes related to the archival collections it preserves, the concept of utopia, the visualisation of knowledge, information sciences, and topics that always reflect this openness to the world cherished by its founders.
Since 2023, a permanent exhibition on the history of the Mundaneum entitled “Mundaneum: Machine for Thinking the World” allows visitors to embark on a discovery of this visionary adventure. As a true space for reflexion, the Mundaneum offers numerous conferences aimed at opening debates on current topics and organises scientific symposiums.
Convinced that today’s youth are the actors of tomorrow, the institution is very active in citizenship education through media literacy. Indeed, the ideas of Otlet and La Fontaine prove to be valuable in addressing current challenges and imagining the world of tomorrow.
— Visit the Mundaneum
A “Wow” visit
“Wow!”, is often the word that comes out of the mouths of our visitors who come from all over the world to discover the first paper search engine. The scenography will immerse you directly in the atmosphere of the Mundaneum… a place that has been Instagrammable since 1895!
