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Organized in some 50 countries, the European Heritage Days, which take place from 21 to 22 September, are an opportunity to discover little-known institutions and even forgotten treasures. The National Furniture is an obvious example, and for the second time in its history only, it opens its doors to the general public.
When a new president of the French Republic takes office, the Elysee Palace undergoes some changes in the market. Indeed, the renewal of the elected calls the renewal of the decor: hard for Emmanuel Macron to work on the same office as François Hollande and ditto for their predecessors! For this, the National Furniture makes available its collection and can offer different pieces according to the tastes of the elected. Only a few people at the top of the state can actually choose.
Thus, in the collection of the Mobilier national is the Louis XVI desk used by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing during his term of office or that of François Mitterrand, contemporary furniture in blue gray iron and fuchsia strips signed Pierre Paulin, one of the greatest French designers of the twentieth century.
As for the current president, Emmanuel Macron, he has chosen to work on a concrete table signed by the visual artist Francesco Passaniti, even if he kept the Louis XV desk in the golden salon, which he uses, it seems , reception room. If the Elysée Palace is furnished by the National Furniture, 600 Republican institutions also benefit from this manna.
In the 13th arrondissement of Paris, in the Gobelins enclosure, this service attached to the general direction of artistic creation of the French Ministry of Culture is a very old institution since at the beginning of the 17th century, Henri IV first created a Royal Furniture Guard. Renamed several times since, it takes the name of National Furniture at the fall of the Second Empire in 1870.
A concrete fortress
The National Furniture moved in 1937, in a building specifically designed for this purpose, designed by the Perret brothers (Augustus and Gustave), on the bed of the Bievre. The architects have been committed to make this building concrete mainly functional, there is still a court of honor which imposes and which is above two floors of reserve.
And indeed, the reserve is important because about 130,000 textile objects and furniture are listed and stored in this building. During the visit, only two large rooms are accessible. Thus a large central staircase gives access to the stock of furniture, a huge room under the roofs where the temperature is almost constant, the conservation with difficulty supporting large differences.
Conservation and restoration
Numerous armchairs, beds, desks of course, support furniture, cardboard boxes, sofas, clocks, many objects that testify to the creation and the French know-how since the 15th century. Gilding, colorful seats, exotic woods, imposing shapes, attract a more or less informed eye. All these pieces of furniture are inventoried and restored if necessary in the workshops intended for this purpose. Some empty seats are even kept as is to show the technique used.
Besides the mission of furnishing and decorating the palaces of the Republic, the second mission is that of conservation and restoration of these furniture, considered as heritage objects. Upholsterers, cabinet makers, carpenters, bronziers of art take turns with the "sick" in dedicated workshops. Know-how is essential in this conservation mission. Artisans sometimes work on exceptional pieces.
On April 15, a huge fire ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral . Many works of art were exfiltrated to the Louvre Museum. The monumental carpet of the choir, woven by the manufacture of the Savonnerie between 1825 and 1833 according to a cardboard of the painter Saint-Ange, was meanwhile, sent to the Mobilier national for restoration, the bad state of the carpet going up, it seems before the blaze of the cathedral.
The second room accessible to the visit is the reserve of raw materials. Ribbons, braids, textile pieces of all kinds are stored in cabinets dating from the construction of the building. The walls, never redone until now, are covered with plaster. This gives a small side obsolete which yet allows the maintenance of moisture, and therefore better conservation. The cupboards are full of pieces that can sometimes go back several hundred years. The red carpets, of those seen in the official ceremonies of the Republic, are also part of this inventory - where we also discover the degree of protocol according to the size of these carpets - like the flags.
From tradition to modernity
Last but not least, the mission of creation, notably thanks to the Research and Creation Workshop of which André Malraux was the initiator and which began its activities in 1964, a workshop that can not be visited because the secret is de rigueur on works in progress. The reason why photos are not allowed in the vast majority of the building.
This design office collaborates with designer architects and works on shapes and materials. In more than fifty years, 600 works have been commissioned and realized: one can find a console of Andrée Putman, a TV mobile of Serge Manzon, a health cell of Jacques Carchon or a multimedia furniture of the great Italian designer Ettore Sottsass. Research, innovation and novelty seem to dictate each project.
And if modernity seems to be the watchword of the ARC, it is necessary that this also applies to the whole institution. Inaugurated in 2018, Hervé Lemoine, Director of National Furniture, intends to hand over the National Furniture in orbit. For example, at the initiative of setting up a digital platform called MN / Lab , which already lists 75,000 objects and furniture, giving significant visibility to this unique collection.
Even if the Court of Auditors pinned the National Furniture and National Manufactures of the Gobelins of Beauvais and Savonnerie in a report released last February 6 , denouncing " a configuration conducive to immobility ", " lax working conditions ", " Unsuccessful ARC projects ", " insufficient valuation of heritage and know-how ", etc. the new director intends to continue his modernization efforts and this probably means a broader exhibition of the collections to the general public, a highlighting of the heritage and increased visibility for recent works.
This can be checked by visitors to the 36th edition of the European Heritage Days.
Official website of the Heritage Days
Official website of the Mobilier national
The entrance of the Mobilier national, at 1, rue Berbier du Mets in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.
National furniture / Christophe ChapototThe Architects Agency and public works company and individuals Perret Brothers has designed and built the National Furniture Building. This one was finished in 1936.
RFI / Valérie PasselègueAuguste Perret (1874-1954) applied to the building of the Mobilier National the same architectural principles as those of the reconstructed city center of Le Havre, of which he was also the architect.
RFI / Valérie PasselègueThe central staircase serves the reserve Perret. At the foot of this stairway, the entrance to the RCAF
National FurnitureThe reserve Perret houses furniture of all eras and keeps them at a constant temperature for their preservation.
National furniture / Thibaut ChapototThe contemporary furniture of the reserve Perret
National furniture / Thibaut ChapototChairs and armchairs of the Perret reserve.
National furniture / Thibaut ChapototReserve Perret, in the foreground on the left the office of President François Mitterrand.
National furniture / Thibaut ChapototThe reserve of raw materials keep ribbons, stripes, trimmings, bias, etc. which for some are several hundred years old.
RFI / Valérie PasselèguePrecise labels provide information on the source and materials used. Here, a bang from the lounge of the office of General de Gaulle at the Elysee Palace.
RFI / Valérie Passelègue