Neither revolutionary, nor remade identically but modernized with a lot of contemporary art: the future interior design of Notre-Dame de Paris, which partially burned down in 2019, should be known Thursday in broad outline.
About twenty heritage and historic monument experts are due to gather from 9:30 am within the National Heritage and Architecture Commission (CNPA) to attend the presentation by the clergy of this much-awaited renovation.
A vote is scheduled for mid-day after a closed-door deliberation.
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The diocese intends to take advantage of the restoration of the famous Gothic cathedral, devastated on April 15, 2019 by a gigantic fire that had upset the whole world, to give it a new lease of life, before its reopening scheduled in 2024. Everything related to Our- Dame, admired by 12 million visitors each year, is talked about outside France. The foreign press has talked about a new
“politically correct Disneyland”
(
The Telegraph
). Because contemporary artists like the French father of urban art Ernest Pignon-Ernest, artists Anselm Kiefer or Louise Bourgeois could see their works
"dialogue"
with those of old masters like the Le Nain brothers or Charles Le Brun, according to
Le World
.
Information confirmed to AFP
"as examples"
by the Ministry of Culture, which is
"not at all opposed"
.
Light at face height, benches on casters with lights to replace age-old chairs, are also part of the project.
A project where "silliness competes with kitsch"
Such proposals
"denatures
(are)
fully decor and liturgical space"
, étrillent a hundred personalities, including the animator Stephane Bern or the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, in an article published Wednesday in our columns.
"Let us respect the work of Viollet-le-Duc, let us respect the work of the artists and craftsmen who have worked to offer us this jewel"
, they add, denouncing a project where according to them
"very often silliness competes with kitsch"
.
The CNPA must first of all examine whether it respects
"heritage laws"
and
"reversibility"
(of certain choices), insists Senator Alberic de Montgolfier, who chairs it.
He welcomes the
“many reconciliations” that have taken
place since the start of the project two and a half years ago between
“visions that could be opposed”
, concerning the ambulatory route or the lighting.
Read alsoThe interior design project of Notre-Dame takes shape
On the menu of the announced renewal: an airy route for tourists and faithful from all over the world around an uncluttered central axis, from the nave to the choir, which hosts 2,400 offices and 150 annual concerts with a
"deep cleaning"
of the 14 chapels, already very dilapidated before the fire. This cleaning should make it possible to rediscover the “Mays”, large altar paintings ordered each year from great artists, between 1630 and 1707, by the corporation of goldsmiths who offered them to the cathedral.
Honorary general curator of heritage and a great friend of the French painter Pierre Soulages, Alfred Pacquement is a supporter of a renewal
"which respects the architecture, history and the sacredness"
of the religious edifice.
But he
"would find it a shame that nothing changes,"
he told AFP.
Responsible for the project in every detail, Father Drouin assures us that it is a question of
“better welcoming”
the public in
“respect of worship”
.
He sticks to functional, pragmatic and didactic solutions such as projecting on walls biblical sentences or Christian spiritual traditions in several languages.
