Béatrice Grenier, Director of Strategic and International Projects at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art
Béatrice Grenier, Director of Strategic and International Projects at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art
By Katia Kulawick-Assante
Tell us about your role at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art.
I oversee international programming because the Cartier Foundation has partnerships in Shanghai, Milan, New York and Miami for exhibitions and conferences, in collaboration with major institutions. We co-produce films, public art projects and collaborations with biennials where we commission new creations all over the world. International programming is very dynamic. The strategic part is more Paris-based: it involves development in connection with this new venue and all the work on coordinating the programming with its architecture. In reality, the entire cultural project had to be rethought around this new location, its attitude towards the city, the urban environment and the population. We had to redefine the ambition of this programme within a scientific framework. I worked on the collection to define the main themes – including conferences, meetings and debates – and the commitments we wanted to pursue and amplify in the coming years through future exhibitions. It’s intense and exciting!
This new exhibition space for the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, on Place du Palais-Royal, has been completely redefined by its interior architecture…
Yes, absolutely. It’s very different to have platforms that allow for enormous volumes, where the associations between the works can be multiple and 360-degree. It’s completely new on this scale and with such ambition. And even more so in a heritage building! The way in which the cultural institution addresses the public and audiences is also completely changing: we have moved from a glass showcase in a garden on the Left Bank to a Haussmann-style building, between the Louvre and the Council of State, overlooking a public square. Being in the building or in the exhibition also means being in the city and entering into dialogue with it. The programme necessarily resonates thanks to the architecture and geographical location. With this new address, the idea of the museum-fortress that excludes its surroundings and showcases isolated worlds disappears: here, we are in total connectivity with the dynamism of the city. The historical context is a change in posture, institutional language, cultural awareness and responsibility for the Cartier Foundation. Particularly at this time – and for the next five years – Beaubourg is no longer within its walls.
How do the mobile platforms designed by Jean Nouvel work?
Like lifts, with a floor and a ceiling: their height can be adjusted to 11 metres, which opens up a lot of possibilities for exhibition spaces. All the platforms can be set at the same level or huge volumes can be created; they can all be set at different levels, or two fixed levels can be inserted, meaning that scenography can be added or monumental installations can be created by viewing a work from above… This new building questions how we look at things.
Each exhibition is also a new starting point: its construction incorporates architectural thinking. It’s a paradigm shift that brings enormous creative possibilities.
Why did the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art move from Boulevard Raspail to the Palais-Royal?
It’s a long-standing project. In the early 2000s, the foundation began to develop its international programme, with the idea of moving beyond its own walls. With the opening of the Tate Modern in London in 2000, there was a realisation that museum practices were evolving enormously and rapidly: the museum was no longer just a place for exhibitions, but also a place for living, which had to accommodate all audiences and offer a varied programme. There was a feeling of being cramped on Boulevard Raspail, a place that was certainly magnificent in terms of exhibition space, but with a very narrow entrance, not very suitable for people with reduced mobility, no auditorium, no café, etc. All these conditions prompted Cartier’s leadership to find a new space for the foundation fairly early on, with an initial project envisaged in 2008 on the Île Seguin, then at the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital on Boulevard Raspail, which also did not work out. For 10 years, even before identifying the address at the Palais-Royal, these discussions were ongoing. Then there was another 10-year period until today, after identifying this site, the design phase and the construction work, which took five years.
Was Jean Nouvel, who had already designed the glass building on Boulevard Raspail, the obvious choice to design this new address on Place du Palais-Royal?
He was the obvious choice because he is the historical architect of the Cartier Foundation and Cartier, having also designed the factory in Saint-Imier and the Richemont headquarters in Bellevue, Switzerland. And then he is a great museum architect: Jean Nouvel has constantly reimagined museums, from the Arab World Institute to the Quai Branly Museum, via the Louvre Abu Dhabi… and now he is back opposite the Louvre. I think this choice was obvious, given the success of Boulevard Raspail – it’s an architectural masterpiece – but also all his reflections on the city of Paris: he designed a magnificent project for Greater Paris in 2008, and he is one of the few architects to have built two towers – Hekla in La Défense and the Duo towers in the 13th arrondissement. He is an architect whose practice is completely rooted in the modernisation of the city of Paris. All his reflections on the evolution of a historic city come together here, at Place du Palais-Royal.
The surprise also comes from the opening up of spaces connected to the outside, whether it be Rue de Rivoli, Place du Palais-Royal or Rue Saint-Honoré…
On the ground floor, there is a sense of symmetry with the city; it is somewhat of a mirror image of the Place du Palais-Royal… There is a feeling of continuity with the pavement, and one indeed has the impression of not having completely left the city.
Was nothing changed on the exterior façade?
Only the glass canopy has been added, creating a beautiful symmetry with the arcades on Rue de Rivoli, a very ‘Nouvelle’ modernising gesture where the glass reflects the sky and the light, creating an understanding of the foundation’s presence.
The first exhibition at the Cartier Foundation on Place du Palais-Royal is called ‘Exposition Générale’. Why?
We borrowed this name from the history of the building, which was a department store for a century and organised “general exhibitions”. It is a kind of tribute to the role that department stores played in bringing together different types of artefacts, but also as a social venue, in direct communication with the street. We are continuing this spirit – which is ultimately also that of the Cartier Foundation’s programming – which is very playful, open, touching on different mediums without ever classifying them. The idea was to create a contemporary map of art without compartmentalising any discipline or creating themes. It is a historical continuation of what department stores brought to the modernisation of museums. That’s why we wanted to borrow this title and rediscover this way of displaying objects, in all its eclecticism and openness.
That’s the common thread between department stores and museums…
Exactly. This great convergence – obvious and significant – took place at the end of the 19th century, but art historians never like to talk about it because it’s a little too disconcerting.
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
2, place du Palais-Royal, Paris 1er
