The Pinault Collection, after Venice in the heart of Paris

PARIS - The new contemporary art museum of François Pinault opens on May 22 in the heart of Paris, a stone's throw from Les Halles, between the Louvre and the Center Pompidou, a futuristic "Collection" that blooms in the heart of the beautiful eighteenth-century Bourse du Commerce. As for Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, it was the Japanese designer Tadao Ando who transformed the ancient place where negotiations between Parisian traders flourished into the new "Collection Pinault" of the French magnate. Born deliberately in the center of the capital, the new installation is the counterpart of the futuristic "vessel", the Fondation Vuitton, a contemporary art museum that has been located since 2015 in the Jardin d'Acclimatation of the Bois de Boulogne wanted by the patron of LVMH, rival in luxury of Pinault, Bernard Arnault.

    Entering the Bourse du Commerce / Collection Pinault, it is the impact in the enormous cylindrical space around which the exhibition galleries run - dominated by the glass and steel dome that illuminates the interiors - that represents the first great surprise for the visitor. In the center, "Untitled" stands out, a multiform and spatial work by the Swiss artist Urs Fischer: in the center, a copy of the Rape of the Sabine Women, a monumental work by Giambologna in Florence, in Piazza della Signoria.

    To admire it, the reproduction of an Italian painter, Rudolf Stingel. Then, chairs: a very banal garden chair, in white plastic, one for the office, then two economy class airplane seats, then another 4 chairs from art collections. The whole is not in marble, wood, plastic but in wax. Like candles, symbolizing the passing of time and vanity, all these works will begin to melt from the entrance of the first visitors and will slowly wear out until they are eventually replaced.

    The visitor who thinks and reflects on creation, destruction and transformation, raises his eyes towards the light coming from the dome and notes "Others", the work of Maurizio Cattelan, a squadron of pigeons perfectly reproduced and arranged along the railing that runs around the " Rotonda ", the large central square of the Bourse, around which the Museum unfolds.

    The idea of ​​Tadao Ando for this new creation, works started in 2017 and completed last year, opening delayed by one year due to the pandemic, is to insert a concrete cylinder of 29 meters in diameter in the center of the ancient building, circular (diameter 38), leaving space all around for exhibition galleries in the side spaces. The cylinder does not reach the dome and lets in the light. All around run the ramps that lead to the exhibition halls, in an ensemble that clearly reveals the inspiration of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the spiral construction by Frank Lloyd Wright.

    32 artists and over 200 works are proposed - from the Pinault collection, in many cases a world premiere to the public. A total of 13,000 square meters, 3,000 for exhibitions. In the basement, a circular 228-seat auditorium. Among the collections on display, almost all of living artists, many Americans, Africans, South Americans, often dramatic works, immersed in the problems of society or in tortuous spiritual paths. The themes of contemporary society, equality, gender, racism, intolerance dominate.

    Important space, in gallery 2 - double height - all the works of the Pinault Collection, never shown before, by the African-American artist David Hammons, radical and uncompromising individuality with an enormous influence on the contemporary art scene. (HANDLE).