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Contemporary stained glass windows in Notre-Dame de Paris? "We do not forbid anything"

2020-11-22T19:40:42.853Z


The Archdiocese of Paris is working on the interior design of the cathedral. And reopens the debate on possible recourse to contemporary art


21st century furniture, contemporary art stained glass windows ... By evoking the possibility of integrating ultramodern once Notre-Dame has healed the wounds of the fire of April 15, 2019, the archbishopric of Paris detonates.

At the head of a reflection committee of around forty people on the layout of the interior of the cathedral once restored - a mission entrusted by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Michel Aupetit - Father Gilles Drouin assumes and demine.

As part of this reflection, you want to bring contemporary art into the cathedral.

Will the spirit of the place be preserved?

FATHER GILLES DROUIN.

During our reflection, we realized that the reception of visitors was no longer suited to mass tourism.

The cathedral has been the liturgical heart of Paris for 850 years.

All the works of art, apart from the altar and the ambo, have been saved, which is miraculous: the large paintings, the enclosure of the choir, the statue of the Virgin, the stained glass windows… But you have to give the keys news of understanding of the building to the 12 million visitors who come, believers or not.

This is our goal.

Contemporary art is just one of the ways.

How far do you plan to intervene?

Until changing stained glass?

Our goal is not to change for the sake of change.

Tourists circled around the choir, the liturgical space.

But along the chapels the mediation was extremely weak.

We would like to allow them to enrich their visit.

There are several options on the table.

One of them is to change the stained glass windows in the chapels: this is quite standard in large cathedrals.

Currently, it is not figurative stained glass but the greyness desired by Viollet-le-Duc (Editor's note: to whom we owe the renovation of Notre-Dame in the 19th century).

They would then be interventions at the margin.

The large stained-glass windows would not be affected, of course.

It is one idea among others.

What about the rest of the furniture?

The chairs and benches had been designed by Cardinal Lustiger himself.

They were totally destroyed.

We are not going to redo them identically.

One of the ideas we have is to free up the choir between the door and half of the nave, during the week.

It would be easier to put contemporary benches, for reasons of ease of handling.

Our goal is to show this great vessel, less congested, more accessible and more readable.

Give meaning to the visit.

Let the visitors be seized.

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VIDEO.

Notre-Dame de Paris: why the framework must be reborn in wood and identically (according to these carpenters)

How do you imagine this cathedral in 2024?

Will we recognize it?

But yes !

The interventions will not be marginal, because there is nothing to be ashamed of.

But the fundamental structure will be respected and magnified.

All the lighting and sound system have to be redone for the liturgy.

And this is fundamental.

And we want to go through the art of today to help visitors understand, it can go through stained glass, paintings on canvas, sculpture ... We do not forbid anything.

Artists, architecture and design students reflect on it.

Will we find ourselves in a museum?

Especially not.

We will stay in a church, with works of art that create an atmosphere and give meaning.

This is the whole difficulty.

No information boards.

No video.

We will rather be in the sensitive and spiritual experience.

There are already some cool proposals.

Everything we imagine may not be in place.

We are in the proposal phase.

Will you present them to Parisians?

I think yes.

We already have consultation and reflection groups.

For the moment, we have not yet defined a budget or specified the timetable for presenting a successful project.

We will leave the first to our archbishop.

Source: leparis

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