The Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art has moved to the cultural heart of Paris, opposite the Louvre, where a vast new space designed by French architect Jean Nouvel opens to the public this Saturday.
The new Fondation Cartier is located in a striking glass building offering 6,500 square metres of exhibition space.
Housed within an historic Haussmann-era complex that once hosted an antiques market, the modern art centre faces the Louvre and hopes to benefit from footfall to the world’s most visited museum to reach a new audience.
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Established by luxury jeweller Cartier in 1984, the foundation previously housed its collection of more than 4,500 artworks at a much smaller site in southern Paris, also designed by Nouvel.
The new-look premises were conceived as "a journey into the future" and "a museum of the 21st century", Nouvel said when he unveiled the plans last year.
With five mobile steel platforms allowing for the modulation of space and light, its design borrows as much from "aircraft carriers as it does from the theatre", according to the award-winning architect.
The foundation's new home – within a "mythical" cultural hub comprising the Louvre, the Comédie Française theatre, the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Bourse de Commerce, which houses the art collection of French businessman François Pinault – is "worthy of the scale of the collection and its history", said its director, Chris Dercon.
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The institution plans to showcase some 600 works on rotation from its collection of works by 500 contemporary artists including Damien Hirst, David Lynch, Joan Mitchell, Patti Smith, Chéri Samba, Raymond Depardon and Malick Sidibé.
Its inaugural show, General Exhibition, highlights key works and moments from the foundation's 41-year history.
The move cost an estimated €230 million in total, according to Fondation Cartier's president, Alain Dominique Perrin.
(with AFP)
