The Belgian artwork historian Chris Dercon has been named as the brand new managing director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’artwork Contemporain in Paris, certainly one of France’s most high-profile artwork foundations. Dercon, who has beforehand been director of the Volksbühne Theatre in Berlin and Tate Trendy in London, will probably be stepping down as president of the French authorities cultural physique, Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais (Rmn-GP) to take up the brand new place in December.
Rmn-GP runs the Grand Palais, the capital’s most prestigious exhibition and fairvenue, and the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. The state-backed organisation additionally works with round 20 accomplice museums corresponding to Musée Magnin in Dijon. Dercon took up the put up late 2018.
Dercon’s tenure on the Rmn-GP has been marked by upheaval, notably the choice to offer the October slot on the Grand Palais normally taken by the Fiac truthful to a brand new truthful, Paris+ by Artwork Basel. The announcement sparked controversy as Fiac, based in 1974, was a Parisian establishment and France’s pre-eminent artwork occasion. MCH Group, the proprietor of the Artwork Basel festivals, agreed to pay €10.6m for a seven-year contract (excluding technical prices), which can run till 2028.
“The selection of Paris+ by Artwork Basel following the decision for initiatives that was organised final 12 months is demonstrative of the ambition which we’ve got for the Grand Palais: to allow Paris to be the tradition capital of the world,” Dercon says in an announcement.
Dercon additionally oversaw the short-term closure of the Grand Palais, which is present process intensive restoration. In 2018, the Paris metropolis council authorised plans to assemble a short lived venue, Le Grand Palais Éphémère, within the Champ de Mars gardens close to the Eiffel Tower, that at the moment hosts occasions normally held on the Grand Palais. The historic constructing, constructed in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle World’s Truthful, will reopen for the Olympic Video games in the summertime of 2024.
Throughout his time at Rmn-GP, Dercon additionally determined to maneuver into the “immersive artwork” discipline, launching a brand new strand of multimedia exhibitions that faucet right into a rising international market. The Grand Palais can have a devoted space for immersive digital experiences when it reopens, with officers on the Paris establishment hoping to revenue from the increase in multimedia artwork reveals.
“Once I arrived on the Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais (Rmn-GP), 4 years in the past, the path [in which] I used to be to guide the Rmn-GP had been clearly outlined with the Ministry of Tradition: to offer a brand new impulse to the renovation undertaking of the Grand Palais, and to accompany the transition of the establishment within the face of recent stakes [challenges] on the earth of arts and tradition,” Dercon says in an announcement.
Dercon provides that his state-regulated contract as president of the Rmn-GP “would have ended on 1 January 2024, only a few months earlier than the reopening of the Grand Palais. It appeared preferable to me {that a} new president could be designated at this second to proceed to guide the opening of the Nouveau Grand Palais and carry it into its first years.” Dercon will work alongside Hervé Chandès, creative managing director. on the Fondation Cartier, which is relocating to a brand new web site within the former Louvre des Antiquaires constructing in central Paris in 2024.
