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Behind closed doors, the incessant activity of museums in the absence of the public

2021-01-28T11:14:08.466Z


Cultural venues may be closed to the public, but this does not prevent museums from being in the throes of turmoil, the exhibitions being all or almost all maintained.


Deserted and depressed, certainly, but certainly not inactive.

For Parisian museums, from the Petit Palais to the Center Georges Pompidou, activity is not slowing down, despite the headache of anticipating and rescheduling exhibitions, and the lack of visibility on the evolution of the pandemic.

"If there was no curfew we would be back at more time ... We are not idle

,

" said

the director of the Petit Palais, Christophe Léribault, to AFP, in the midst of hanging works from from the collections of art dealer Ambroise Vollard.

In a subdued atmosphere, fragile prints and lithographs are covered with krafts paper to protect them from light.

"We remove them very occasionally to put up the signage, to secure the labels"

, says Commissioner Clara Roca.

A time-stamped system of visits must make it possible to respect a gauge:

"We are going to do a little test

with a few members of the team

," she announces

.

They will visit the exhibition watch in hand so that we can determine an average time for visitors ”

.

Read also: Reopening of museums in Italy in regions least exposed to the coronavirus

The director regrets, however, that the ambitious exhibition on Danish art was only open for four weeks.

“I negotiated extensions.

But after a year, the paintings had to be returned, room for the next exhibition dedicated to the great Italian painter Giovanni Boldoni, worried that his works would be blocked in other exhibitions in Italy ”

.

The issue of loans is

"nightmarish, the dates (confinement, deconfinement) are constantly changing.

We must consult all our partners, who fortunately fully understand that we have sculptures, paintings blocked at the end of the world in closed museums ”

.

All this, he adds, while

"we are stuck on the spot, whereas normally we will meet collectors, see works abroad"

.

To read also: Valérie Guillaume: "The Carnavalet Museum is ready"

Maintained exhibitions

At the Center Pompidou, the flagship exhibition of the season,

Matisse as a novel

, is due to end on February 22.

A heartbreak for its organizers.

But no way to extend it, the risk being to telescope all the programming.

In ten days, 17,000 visitors flocked there.

As its curator Aurélie Verdier notes, for

“this artist who is absolutely not melancholy, there is something melancholy”

.

All the more so since, since the reconfinement, only

"the family and the lenders have been able to benefit from a few extremely occasional visits"

, she adds.

In this large empty boat that Beaubourg seems closed, a montage exhibition by the German Hito Steyerl has reused the structures of the Christo exhibition.

It is also a way of saving resources and energy.

Steyerl came last year and

"works remotely on the scenography, the location of the works, the setting"

with his team on site, explains curator Marcella Lista.

This artist from the documentary video

“wields humor like a weapon, describing us all reduced to looking at the world through a screen”

.

The theme is timely, with confinement and curfew.

"French exception"

For the president of Beaubourg, Serge Lasvignes, the closure of the Center is a

“severe”

decision

, in vast spaces where the flow of visitors could circulate without risk.

Severe especially for the staff, to whom it has just announced three years of closure, between 2023 and 2026, for a total renovation.

In terms of programming,

“we haven't removed anything yet

,” he says proudly.

When we compare to the United States, the United Kingdom, where there have been layoffs, there is a sort of French exception "

because of the support, particularly financial, from the government.

Difficulties, from which some positive developments may also emerge: the

Matisse

online exhibition

was visited by

“thousands of people who would not have come to see it in person”

.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-01-28

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