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<\/p>\nThe Fondation Cartier pour l\u2019art contemporain, one of Europe\u2019s most high-profile private sector cultural organisations, will lay bare its vast collection at the opening of its highly anticipated new Paris gallery later this month. Over 600 works by more than 100 artists will go on show in the inaugural exhibition at the new space located at the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. <\/p>\n
The new building, part of the former Louvre des Antiquaires complex, has been reconfigured by the French architect Jean Nouvel, boosting the capital\u2019s burgeoning contemporary art scene. The gallery’s launch exhibition, Exposition G\u00e9n\u00e9rale (25 October-23 August 2026), is designed by the Italian studio Formafantasma. <\/p>\n
Chris Dercon, the managing director of Fondation Cartier, says: \u201cI think if there is one characteristic about this first exhibition in relationship to the building, it is that we laid open the collection. Now we [draw upon] 40 years of collecting, and that means there is tremendous interest in our set of works. Of course, we had to make a choice. We can only show 600 works from a collection of around 4,500.\u201d<\/p>\n
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View from Level-1. Andrea Branzi, Gazebo<\/p>\n
Cyril Marcilhacy<\/p>\n
The exhibition’s title, Exposition G\u00e9n\u00e9rale, refers to the history of the location and the building. Originally created as the Grand Hotel du Louvre to accommodate visitors to Exposition Universelle of 1889\u2014a world’s fair known in English as the Paris Exposition\u2014the venue later became the Grands Magasins du Louvre (1880-1977), with the hotel salons converted into commercial exhibition spaces. This commercial aspect continued with the Louvre des Antiquaires (1977-2018).<\/p>\n
Exposition G\u00e9n\u00e9rale includes key works by artists as Sarah Sze, Rinko Kawauchi, Patti Smith, James Turrell and Vija Celmins. According to a a project statement, these pieces are spread across four thematic sections that \u201creinterpret the encyclopaedic museum model\u201d. The sections are Machines d\u2019architecture, described as \u201can ephemeral architectural laboratory\u201d; \u00catre nature, which \u201cbrings the forest into the building\u201d; Making Things, \u201ca space for experimentation with materials and techniques\u201d and un monde r\u00e9el, which explores technological and dystopian visions.<\/p>\n
The Making Things section also includes works by artists such as Joan Mitchell (Grande Vall\u00e9e VI, 1984) and Damien Hirst (Wonderful World Blossom, 2018). \u201cI just had a discussion about the position of the Mitchell and Hirst works,\u201d says Dercon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are almost in an intimate situation because they’re at the back of Olga de Amaral\u2019s work and in front of a designed landscape by Andrea Branzi (Gazebo, 2008). There are these unexpected dialogues.\u201d <\/p>\n
EXIT, an immersive installation created in 2008 by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, based on an original idea by the philosopher Paul Virilio, uses data collected by scientists to map different types of migratory flows. The work is included in the section, un monde reel. \u201cIn the case of the Diller work, we had to update the piece because it’s a work about the political situation which in terms of immigration and the data has changed enormously today,\u201d Dercon says.<\/p>\n
In the future, the the Place du Palais-Royal space will host two main exhibitions annually, based on a transdisciplinary approach. Dercon explains: \u201cWe will look for artists which are not well known here who deserve to be shown. It’s going to be very different from other foundations because of the character of our exhibitions, our identity, our collection.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Works by Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Fabrice Hyber and Raymond Depardon<\/p>\n
Marc Domage<\/p>\n
The director adds that exhibitions will have an international focus, often exploring Africa and Latin America. Next autumn, the Fondation Cartier will present The Harvest, the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama.<\/p>\n
The new Fondation Cartier venue covers 8,500 sq. m accessible to the public, with 6,500 sq. m of exhibition space, housing a library, auditorium and a restaurant. The new building encompasses five \u201cmobile platforms\u201d which can be modified and moved.<\/p>\n
Dercon says: \u201cWe can choose the constellation of the platforms\u2014we can choose [the arrangement] with the artist, with the curators; we can choose this also depending on the theme or character of an exhibition, and whether it is a group exhibition or a monographic show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese new types of art spaces are functional and very valuable. Especially when you think about a collection like the Fondation Cartier\u2019s which is a collection of in betweenness\u2014in between art and design, in between design and architecture, in between arts and crafts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat form of in betweenness, you can solve it in two ways. You can create a separate wing for the design section or a separate wing for the architecture, and then you have some crafts in another wing. But in this building, all these disciplines, they talk to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
External spaces are just as important as internal areas; an underground passage that once connected the M\u00e9tro to the Grands Magasins\u2014 known as Galerie Valois\u2014will for instance host displays linked to the main exhibitions at the Place du Palais-Royal. \u201cJean\u2019s [Nouvel\u2019s] concept is also about the outside and the context of the location and the historic area,\u201d Dercon says.<\/p>\n