It reappeared after being swallowed by time under temporary walls: Zero spacehuge surface of white sandstone, enhanced with black joints, signed by Jean-Pierre Raynaudwelcomes visitors once again to MAMC+ in Saint-Etienne Métropole after nineteen months of work. The immaculate bas-relief, the antechamber for diving into the collections, thus returns to its original place in the lobby of this Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. opened in 1987 and signed by Didier Guichardwith which the grid of large black ceramic tiles on the facade provides a perfect contrast.
The work, the first from top to bottom in almost forty years, has given the building’s interior a sheen that goes hand in hand with a greener approach: no more are the brittle resin floors that were constantly touched up and contained asbestos; to live the elegant, more durable terrazzo, the design of the technical rails that hide all the networks and the installation of a less energy-consuming air conditioner. With, in passing, an unlocking of the suspended windows and the return of natural light.
Emerging from a Museum of Art and Industry in the city that had become too small, MAMC+ had, at its creation, recovered a collection of fine arts from the 16th century.e in the 19th centurye century, and continued the modern collection initiated within it, with an ambitious international policy of acquiring contemporary works led by Bernard Ceysson, who took over the direction of the Museum of Art and Industry in 1967, and led the project of the new museum.
Monumental formats
In 1987, approximately 2,300 works were moved to the new entity; today, the collections number 23,000 works. With this exponential growth, it is MAMC+’s turn to be crammed into the 3,000 square meters of exhibition, but also into its reserves, spread over three places: the back of the museum, which brings together the 3,000 paintings in the collection. ; a site in the center of the city, and another 10 kilometers away, where the rest of the rich collection of photographs, sculptures and installations, as well as design objects, are distributed.
At a time when the air conditioning in the building must also be changed in the reserve, which had to be emptied, the director of the museum, Aurélie Voltz, chose to turn a constraint into a bias: the collections are honored through two interesting journeys, “Format Hors” and “Brand New! “. The first presents a selection of nearly 70 large-scale masterpieces from the museum, as well as its most fragile and ancient pieces, some of which are stored in a new hanging works restoration space, which allows visitors to see behind the scenes the museum.
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