Pompidou at Palais de Tokyo caught up in politics
An empty part of Palais de Tokyo (Photo: AFP/JOËL SAGET)
Opening a branch of Paris’s Centre Pompidou in the Palais de Tokyo is proving a difficult task. As Le Monde’s Clarisse Fabre reports, the original date for the opening, slated for 2009, has been pushed back, twice, to the end of 2010. The national museum was supposed to expand into the empty sections of the vast Palais de Toyko building, which houses the Palais de Tokyo: Site de Création Contemporaine. After renovations there, the Centre Pompidou would have an additional 42.650 sq m (139.931 sq ft) of exhibition space for solo shows by midcareer and established artists in design and the visual arts.
Alain Seban, president of the Centre Pompidou, has insisted that the new site constitutes “an antenna of the Pompidou—not an autonomous place,” while minister of culture Christine Albanel wants the site to be driven by the artistic community instead of “reproducing the old models of organization” of the Pompidou.
Read more
Artforum.com (June 16, 2008)
Le Monde (June 11, 2008)
Art in America (October, 2007)
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