The former stock exchange in Paris will reopen as a museum dedicated to the collection of businessman and art collector François Pinault. The Bourse de Commerce is set to open on January 23 2021, and has been transformed by Japanese architect, Tadao Ando.
The building was originally set to open last month, but the date was changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bourse de Commerce is dedicated to contemporary art seen through the prism of the Pinault collection, and it will offer thematic displays and monographic exhibitions, as well as new productions, commissioned works, events and projects. Open to all artistic disciplines including painting, sculpture and video, it will offer educational programs, conferences, meetings, screenings, concerts and performances.
The building will include 6800 sq meters of modular exhibition space, which can either be used whole for large-scale exhibitions or divided into rooms from 100 to 600 square meters. Along with gallery space, it will also feature a 284-seat auditorium for screenings, lectures, conferences, and concerts. There is also a vast foyer and a black-box theatre for video installations and experimental performances.
François Pinault has assembled a collection of more than 5000 works from the 20th and 21st centuries. The Bourse de Commerce will collaborate closely with his other museums in Venice - the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana. It has also organized a series of exhibitions in partnership with institutions in France and internationally, through which the works in the collection can be seen in new contexts by audiences who may not have the opportunity to travel to Venice.
"With the creation of this new museum, I am writing the next chapter of my cultural project, whose goal is to share my passion for contemporary art with as broad an audience as possible," says François Pinault.
Further information can be found on the Bourse de Commerce's website here.
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