2023-05-22 00:03:30
The great museum of modern art will close its doors for the first time since 1977 to undergo a thorough renovation that aims to ensure the building’s survival
When it opened its doors in 1977, some considered it an aberration; others see something innovative in that mass of steel and glass, with colored tubes and an industrial air, which stood in the middle of a Paris of decaying buildings. Almost half a century later, the Pompidou Center It is one of the most important modern art museums in the world and one of the most visited artistic centers in Paris, along with the Louvre and the D’Orsay. In two years it will close its doors for the first time since it opened to undergo renovation works that will last five years and whose objective is to ensure the survival of the building, and also to modernize it.
During a five-year period Pars is going to be an orphan of one of its most emblematic buildings. “The Center Pompidou, which was built in the 1970s by the architects Renzo Piano y Richard Rogers, has always received much criticism for its avant-garde appearance. It underwent some cleanup work in the late 1990s, but the renovation works that are going to be carried out now are much more important“, explains Laetitia Levantis, art historian, consultant and member of the Telemme research center (Aix-Marseille University).
It is called the Georges Pompidou Cultural Centre, the name of the president who promoted the project and ordered its construction, although he died in 1974 and did not get to inaugurate it. The works began in 1970, under his mandate, and it was inaugurated seven years later. It has never been renewed and has become obsolete. In this time it has received some 300 million visitors. The wear and tear suffered by the building made the work necessary. These will last five years. There were seven people to build it, but the works came to a halt when Pompidou died.
“What is going to be done mainly are modernization and asbestos removal works of the facade. In addition, the museum is plagued by corrosion, and requires a comprehensive modernization of its structure: work will be done on fire safety, access for people with reduced mobility and energy optimization,” says the French expert.
The Pompidou is a historical monument, a testimony of the modern architecture of the 70s.
“18 months ago, a consultation process began with the teams of the Center Pompidouthe public information library (Bpi) and the Institute of Research and Coordination Acoustics/Music (Ircam), which has given rise to a new cultural project that reclassifies the set of spaces at the Pompidou Center to respond to cultural, social and environmental needs for the coming years”, the Museum management points out in the project dossier.
The works were announced in 2021, they were going to be done from 2023 to 2027, the year of the 50th anniversary. Since the Olympic Games are in 2024, it will finally wait for them to finish. That year, in addition, he will reopen the Notre Dame cathedral, which has been under construction for years after the 2019 fire. The gradual closure of the Pompidou will begin just that year. In 2025 it will close completely to the public, in 2026 work will begin and the center will finally reopen in 2030. In the reopening, the museum “will be entirely reinvented, but the spaces will maintain the same layout in the building,” according to the project.
The challenge of reforming a museum of these characteristics is enormous. “There were two options on the table: one was to restore the Center by keeping it open, and the other was the total closure. We opted for the second, because it lasted less and was less expensive. Carrying out these works in stages while keeping the center open and with public access would have extended the project up to seven years,” explained the then French culture minister, Roselyne Bachelote, when she announced the works two years ago.
Carrying out these works while keeping the center open would have extended the project up to seven years.
In addition to improving security and removing asbestos from the façade, it was necessary to modernize a building that now competes with other recently created artistic centers, much newer and more sophisticated. It is the case of the Foundation Louis Vuittonwhich opened in 2014 and whose building was designed by the architect Franl Gehry, or the Pinault Foundationwhich is in the old Paris Stock Exchange and opened its doors in 2021.
“The Pompidou is a historical monument, a testimony of the modern architecture of the 70s, It is one of the most important centers of modern and contemporary art in the world. and its collections cover the history of art and the main artistic manifestations and movements of the 20th century. I think this is its main difference from the new museums (Louis Vuitton or the Pinault Foundation), which house more contemporary collections or highlight internationally renowned artists of today”, says Laetitia Levantis.
The other main Parisian museums have undergone improvement works. The Louvre was renovated in parts at the beginning of the 90s. The D’Orsay was also reformed, from 2007 to 2010, with works that cost 2.5 million euros. Square meters were added with new showrooms. In this case the reform was also justified for security reasons. When the old Orsay railway station was turned into a museum in 1986, the building was reinforced, but environmental pollution had corroded it.
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