Pompidou to pop up all over France

Paris museum plans to open temporary branches across the country

By Gareth Harris. Web only

Published online: 12 February 2015

After Malaga, the Centre Pompidou plans to open "pop ups" in France

Towns and cities across France will soon be able to boost their culture offerings by hosting pop-up branches of the Centre Pompidou. The Paris museum is expanding its empire, and aims to establish domestic temporary outposts. “We will soon launch an open call for candidates [to select a French city],” says a spokesman for the Centre Pompidou. These pop-ups will remain open for four years.

The city authorities in Libourne, a town in southwestern France, have already expressed an interest in opening a temporary Centre Pompidou venue. The mayor, Philippe Buisson, told the local newspaper Sud-Ouestthat the proposed Pompidou branch could be housed in a former military base called Esog. Renovating the building will cost around €5.8m, according to Buisson, with €1m provided by the municipality. “We consider this to be a cultural project for the entire region... this is why we will ask regional and local authorities for assistance,” Buisson said.

The Centre Pompidou launched a mobile museum in 2011, which toured six cities including Libourne in 2012, but the mobile gallery project was halted because of the high cost. Meanwhile, more than 90 works drawn from the collection of the Centre Pompidou will go on show at the end of March in the first “Pop-up Pompidou” due to open in Malaga, southern Spain. “The Centre Pompidou Malaga will also host temporary exhibitions and performance art events, and organise projects for children,” the spokesman says. The venue will remain in situ on the city harbour for a five-year period.

However, the spokesman for the Centre Pompidou denied Chinese press reports, which say that the Paris museum has signed a cultural cooperation agreement with the privately owned Today Art Museum in Beijing. “There are no staff exchanges or joint cultural projects, but our books, prints, and merchandising will be available in the museum shop.” 

In 2012, Alain Seban, the president of the Centre Pompidou, announced plans to form a network of “temporary Centres Pompidou” around the world, indicating that these new outposts would primarily be in China and South America. 

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Pompidou-to-pop-up-all-over-France/37053