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Center Pompidou in Shanghai: Emmanuel Macron in China

2019-11-07T22:38:06.872Z


On his state visit to China, Emmanuel Macron hands over a gift: the first Center Pompidou for contemporary art outside Europe. It is also a balancing act between freedom of art and state censorship.



French women in colorful flower print dresses run through the atrium, men with chunky glasses discuss raw concrete ceilings. In the foyer of the new museum are the Parisian gallery owner Daniel Templon and star architect Jean Nouvel. Jean-Michel Jarre, the musician, is also there. The new Pompidou Center in Shanghai is inaugurated, so it looks as if an Airbus dumped the Paris Society over the Huangpu River.

Warehouses and industrial buildings used to stand on this river, and now a "cultural corridor" is to be created on the western border, as the responsible mayor of the district thought up years ago. Shanghai is to become the art capital of China - and it is on the way up.

Several museums already exist on the West Bund: the private Yuz Museum of Contemporary Art is one of them. And the Long Museum, whose owner is one of the country's largest art collectors. And now, since this week, also the first Center Pompidou outside of Europe.

Hector Retamal / REUTERS

Red as signal color? French President at the opening of the Center Pompidou in Shanghai

"Such a day is very moving for a President of the Republic," said Emmanuel Macron at the inauguration, "because today the dream of André Malraux comes true - an imaginary museum with pictures that were never intended for the place where it was exhibited become." This is a world premiere, but only a first step, according to France's president.

The agreement between China and France to bring a Center Pompidou to Shanghai dates back to Macron's first state visit to Beijing in January 2018. Plans had been around for a long time.

And so the Westbund state-owned company had commissioned British architect David Chipperfield to build a museum in Shanghai before the cooperation officially came to fruition.

AP

One hundred works for China

The Chinese financed the construction - three nearly 18-meter high cubes with a glass facade and a spacious public atrium. The French are responsible for the artistic content: The Center Pompidou selected a hundred works from its collections for the permanent exhibition "The Shape of Time" on 20th and 21st century art. The exhibition will be on display over the next five years. There will also be temporary exhibitions - 15 video installations by international but also Chinese artists will be opening at the opening.

Freedom of art versus state censorship

All exhibited works must be approved in advance by the Chinese authorities. The French are thus dealing with a situation in which there are two irreconcilable concepts: the freedom of art and state censorship.

Five out of a hundred works were rejected by the Chinese for the permanent exhibition and had to be replaced by others. Partly this was done for reasons that are not always understandable, say the Pompidou curators, more details will not be revealed.

Center Pompidou's Paris director, Serge Lasvignes, nevertheless defended French cultural export: "It's better we're present than not being here at all." The cooperation is limited to five years, after which both sides can decide whether they want to continue or not. A similar agreement already exists for the Center Pompidou with a branch in Malaga. The duration of the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, however, is long-term and designed for 30 years.

French foreign policy with Asterix

Cultural exports are part of French foreign policy. They should fill the bilateral relations beyond trade agreements and politics with life. As a result, several cultural exchange agreements were signed last Wednesday in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in the presence of China's President Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron:

  • The French National Orchestra will come to China for tours.
  • The Paris Picasso Museum as well as the Rodin Museum entered into partnerships.
  • The exchange of artists from both countries was agreed, as well as a cooperation in monument protection.
  • In addition, they agreed on co-productions of films; even the new Asterix is ​​to play in China, in the footsteps of the ancient Silk Road.

The Center Pompidou also aims to gain new access to the world's third-largest art market through the Shanghai site. Financial motives, explained director Lasvignes in an interview, played only a minor role - because the museum with foreign exhibitions, which it designs for clients, deserve much more.

This is a new chapter in the relationship between China and France, Macron said cheerfully at the inauguration. The Parisian Society applauded. And the invited Chinese guests raptly held their phones to the stage. For a few hours her country looked so cosmopolitan and avant-garde, as they had always wanted.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-11-07

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