“It was gray and dreary, this gives some punch and grandeur to the building!
», exclaims Anne Rogeaux, administrator at the Maison des arts et de la culture (MAC) in Créteil.
When the weather is nice, his workplace now has a “seaside feel”, with the blue of the lake, the sky and the MAC.
The facade of the building has regained its 1970s blue, signed by the visual artist Jean-Pierre Vasarely, thanks to the restoration, completed at the end of 2023, carried out by the agglomeration.
The gray of the decrepit slab of the building had long since blended in with the other buildings.
But now, we can see the Créteil arts center much better.
“It’s very pretty, it’s a change,” says a Cristolienne who has lived here for 25 years, but was unaware that the facade had once been blue.
Yvaral's heirs wanted to find the original blue
While the work was supposed to be partial, the degraded state of the facades led GPSEA to repaint all of the original supports.
Work done in conjunction with the Vasarely Foundation, and a painting conservation and restoration firm, to identically renovate the original work.
“We paid attention to both the aesthetic value, the readability of the work, its durability and the historical aspect,” indicates the agglomeration.
Under the varnish made more and more opaque over time, the colorists discovered ten distinct colors on the facades.
They worked hard to reproduce exactly the same shades of this shades of blue and purple.
The facade of the Maison des arts et de la culture (MAC) in Créteil has been restored and regained its blue from the 1970s. LP/Domitille Robert
The operation, which lasted a year, cost 2.4 million euros, with a financial contribution from the Île-de-France region of 519,000 euros.
This restoration, the first since the inauguration of the building in 1977, comes after work to repair the waterproofing and the roof of the building.
Anne Rogeaux, who works at the MAC, is “very grateful” for this work which allows the building to be better identified.
“The MAC will become the blue building again,” she rejoices.
His colleague Nathalie Bejon, who arrived here in 1988, saw the color deteriorate for 36 years.
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It was therefore time to restore this facade which had become gray, believe the two women.
They also underline better coherence between the interior and exterior, both colorful.
In Créteil, we also owe to Yvaral and his father Victor Vasarely the mural of the Créteil l'Echat Mondor metro station, as well as the murals of the towers of the Lévrière district (1972 to 1974), reproduced in 2016-2017 .