Fondation Cartier Teases New Paris Building for 40th Anniversary

PARIS — Nearly 40 years to the day after it was inaugurated, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain offered a glimpse at its future home on Place du Palais-Royal, designed by architect Jean Nouvel.

Sitting opposite the Louvre museum, the future home of the contemporary art institution will occupy more than 90,000 square feet on the ground floor and lower levels of a listed building inaugurated in 1855 as part of part of Baron Haussmann’s mandate to overhaul 19th-century Paris.

Over time, the Second Empire-style construction first housed a hotel, then the Grand Magasins du Louvre department store and most recently, the Louvre des Antiquaires, a complex of antique dealers, as well as offices.

“Then Jean went in and as he does, changed the interior a bit,” quipped Alain Dominique Perrin, founding president of the art institution during a press visit of the construction site on Friday.

Perrin later told WWD a budget of 230 million euros had been earmarked for the renovation — the building itself belongs to the SDL commercial real estate management group — and that spending was “more or less on track.”

“Despite the inflation, we managed to save on other things,” he said. “The only thing we couldn’t control was the rising cost of steel — and there’s thousands of tons here — so we took a hit, but [one] isn’t too bad. There’s still a year of construction work to go but [the final cost] will be between 225 [and] 245 [million] but not above.”

Conceived with the idea of letting the going-ons of the museum be visible from the outside, Nouvel likened the museum to “a crossing of the future” and “a shelter for the unpredictable,” articulated using ideas and techniques drawn from aircraft carriers as well as large-scale stage mechanisms.  

Playing on the indoor-outdoor perception also encouraged the address’ vocation as a crossroads for cultural exchanges. Architecture-wise, his belief is that given the Haussman-style patrimony of Paris, it was important to offset it with a more radical use of space.

“Historical patrimony is here to be a continuum,” he said. “Most major architectures are [composed of] three, four or five periods.”

The 150-meter-long building — on par with the length of the nearby Pompidou Center — will include 70,000 square feet of exhibition space, including 13,500 in the form of five mobile platforms that can be repositioned to create layered vertical spaces reaching up to 11 meters in height.

“There are 11 million combinations,” enthused Perrin. “We can’t do better than give [artists] a tool in movement.”

There are also 13,000 square feet of walkways overlooking the platforms and a garden has been planted on a suspended glass courtyard above the central platform, fitted with shutters that can be adjusted.

A bookstore, restaurant and auditorium will occupy three of the corners of the new museum, while the fourth will be the entrance.

The first exhibition slated to take place here will showcase between 600 and 700 works drawn from the 4,500 commissioned from 500 artists over four decades and “showcasing the vitality of 40 years of contemporary art,” said Perrin.

As is now the foundation’s tradition, that’s where major artists will continue to take pride of place on the central space, while newer signatures will take up other spaces.

While the works are a year from completion, Perrin was keen to mark the 40th anniversary of the cultural institution.

“Today is not the inauguration, that will be done by [managing director] Chris Dercon in a year,” said Perrin. “I am blowing a candle to 40 years, which situates us — not to brag but bragging a little nonetheless — and reminds everyone that we are pioneers and trailblazers.”

The contemporary art institution was inaugurated on Oct. 20, 1984, by then-French minister of culture Jack Lang. Created by the Compagnie Financière Richemont-owned French jewelry firm at the instigation of Perrin, it is a nonprofit organization and museum that helps up-and-coming artists debut, while exhibiting more established signatures as well.

For exhibitions with the Fondation Cartier, artists commit to creating new works, while the foundation ensures production and acquires the final piece.

Perrin recounted the history of the Fondation Cartier, starting with the establishment of the contemporary art institution, which was inspired by conversations with French sculptor César Baldaccini, who expressed the need for better support for artists. “César was always telling me what [artists] want is cash and the speed of a [private] company,” he said.

The Place du Palais-Bourbon address will be the Fondation Cartier’s third home in four decades, after it spent 10 years in its original location in Jouy-en-Josas before moving into its Boulevard Raspail in 1994, also designed by Nouvel.

What will become of its current Boulevard Raspail home, where it occupies the ground floor and lower level of a facility which belongs to the Groupama insurance group, is yet to be determined.

Perrin expressed his willingness to be involved should the 13,000-square-foot premises become the home of the “Maison des mondes africains” (or House of African Worlds), a place dedicated to African reflection and creativity announced by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2021.

He also highlighted that over 40 years, it had staged more than 300 exhibitions in France and abroad, as well as 1,000 “Soirée Nomade” traveling events that highlighted all forms of artists — even a stand-up comedy troupe, he added.  

He expressed satisfaction that luxury rivals LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Kering through the Pinault Foundation and Hermès were among the many companies around the world who had followed in Cartier’s footsteps.

“It was a colossal breath of oxygen for artists,” he added. “We gave extraordinary breathing room to art professions. Given that we make a living from creation so it’s normal that we give back.”