The big facelift of the Center Pompidou is coming soon.
The Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot announced to Le Figaro, Monday, January 25, that the famous Parisian museum of modern and contemporary arts would close a little more than three years for large-scale work.
"There were two options on the table, one consisting of restoring the Center while keeping it open, the other being complete closure," the minister explained.
"I chose the second, because it turned out to be shorter in time and a little cheaper".
Such work had never been undertaken in the Center Pompidou, inaugurated in 1977 in the heart of Paris.
Their cost is estimated at around 200 million euros, the museum said.
They will start at the end of 2023, end at the end of 2026 and the center will reopen in early 2027 for its fiftieth anniversary.
"It is not easy to announce a closure in a period when we are closed", admitted to AFP the president of the Center, Serge Lasvignes, assuring that "the principle was that there would be no dismissal [for some 1,000 employees] ".
"Dangerous to give the feeling that the center is aging"
Following discussions initiated since 2011, the Ministry of Culture approved last Friday the master plan for the work of the giant building made of tubes and steel, unique in its kind.
They will be done in three years rather than in seven, which would have been the case with the partial closure option: asbestos removal, renovation in order to meet safety standards, technical standards, fire protection, etc. energy, as well as accessibility for the disabled.
"The total closure option certainly allows us to spend a little less than the partial closure option and it includes total asbestos removal," said Serge Lasvignes.
"I thought," he explained, "what a center that is perpetually under construction could represent for staff and visitors, and also for its image in a context where brand new buildings such as the Bourse de Commerce are opening up. " Close.
"It is a crucial stake", he argued, stressing that "it is very dangerous, in a very competitive period at the Parisian and world levels, to give the feeling that the center is aging, that it dates from another era ".
Already the caterpillar which houses the escalators along the building is being renovated.
A project that should be completed in the summer of 2026.
Serge Lasvignes, who is coming to the end of his term in mid-2021, hoped that "a brand new center, new proposals, will lead to an increase in attendance", while the closure will have reduced some costs.
We will "have to find the financing", he admits: "We do not have the means from our own resources, so that means that it will have to be State credits and we will have to find forms of sponsorship. , call on special resources. The image of a new Center Pompidou may be of interest to large companies ".
"Pompidou touch"
The Library (BPI), the first public reading room in Paris, will have temporary premises, between 7,000 and 10,000 m² in intramural Paris.
"The requirement" that "the government asks us" to mobilize collections throughout the territory will ensure that "we are not going to be unemployed," assured President de Beaubourg.
Support for the Center Pompidou-Metz will be stepped up.
The Ile-de-France conservation and creation center in Massy will open from December 2025, with an exhibition space and multiple activities over 2,500 m².
The president of the Center will also offer turnkey exhibitions everywhere and strengthen its international presence, in addition to the already existing centers in Shanghai, Malaga and Brussels.
"I hope there will be one or two more," he noted without saying more.
Serge Lasvignes believes that the right strategy is to assert even more the "Pompidou touch": multidisciplinary and involvement in major social debates - equality, fight against discrimination, global warming ...
With AFP
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