Paris (AFP)
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has been chosen for the construction of a contemporary gallery aimed at protecting the western portal of Angers Cathedral, whose precious polychromies were to be saved, the Ministry of Culture announced on Friday.
Saint-Maurice d'Angers has a sculpted 12th century portal, and, in 2009, cleaning work revealed vestiges of medieval and modern polychromy which have since been the subject of a restoration carried out by the Regional Directorate. of cultural affairs (DRAC).
This portal, said a press release, is one of the rare testimonies of the polychromy of cathedrals in the Middle Ages, and only the construction of a new permanent protection will allow them to be preserved.
"After several historical and archaeological studies, the data collected was not considered sufficient to envisage an identical reconstruction of the old gallery", added the ministry.
This is why the National Heritage and Architecture Commission (CNPA) validated in 2019 an original project to create a contemporary gallery protecting this portal.
A jury assembled last week, made up of the prefect of Maine-et-Loire, the mayor, the bishop of Angers, various officials, experts and architects, analyzed the projects of the five teams of architects and selected that of Kengo Kuma.
According to the Ministry of Culture, it "fits harmoniously into a major heritage building and more broadly into its urban context".
An architect of international renown, Kengo Kuma has an office in Paris and is responsible, in particular, in France, for the extension of the Albert Kahn museum in Boulogne-Billancourt.
Roselyne Bachelot "welcomed this unprecedented approach, as it concerns a cathedral, which once again demonstrates the fruitfulness of the dialogue between contemporary creation and heritage".
The debate on the marriage of the old and the contemporary, especially for cathedrals, ignites the spirits.
The possibility of a "contemporary gesture", advanced by Emmanuel Macron after the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris to rebuild its spire, had been abandoned in front of the outcry it had aroused.
An identical reconstruction is planned.
The cultural component of the government's major recovery plan provides for a "cathedral plan" of 80 million euros which aims to strengthen and accelerate their restoration.
After the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris, then that of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes this year, the ministry decided to step up the restoration and security work of the 87 buildings owned by the State .
© 2020 AFP