Paris: they close the Pompidou Center for five years to modernize it: they will spend 262 million euros

If you haven’t visited it, hurry up. The Center Pompidou, the main contemporary art site in Paris, will close its doors to the public between the end of the European summer of 2025 and 2030 for modernization works. This was announced on Wednesday 10 May by the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, and the president of the centre, Laurent Le Bon, during a press conference.

The works, which had been announced in early 2021 e will cost 262 million euros, They were initially expected between 2023 and 2027. But Covid delayed them. The program has been revised to maintain the opening for the 2024 Olympic Games. The process will be progressive: the building will be completely closed from December 2025.

The Pompidou Center, one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world, unique in its kind for its multidisciplinary nature, designed by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, had not been renovated since its opening in 1977. In 45 years, it received around 300 million hits “and I was not prepared for such a crowd,” Rima Abdul Malak stressed.

The Ircam (Institute for Acoustic/Music Research and Coordination), which is part of the Pompidou Center, will remain open. The Public Information Library (BPI) will continue its activity at another site near Bercyin the 12th arrondissement of Paris, while works last.

“This house had aged,” Laurent Le Bon pointed out, and it was necessary to perpetuate the survival of the building. The aim is to remove asbestos from the facades, equip fire safety with modern techniques, make the center more accessible to people with reduced mobility and achieve energy optimisation. But the spaces will also be rethought.

Don’t lose your DNA

After the works, we will find “a completely transformed Center Pompidou, cPreserving the original utopia and DNA”, promised Laurent Le Bon.

There will be no expansion. The Pompidou Center will remain in its 21,000 m2. But a space located under the square, originally intended for parking buses, will be recovered. This will expand level -1, which will house two cinemas, a new room dedicated to contemporary creation and the debate of ideas. at the foot of the road, a large restaurant will be opened to the citywith outdoor terrace.

The BPI, “the lung of our house”, according to Laurent Le Bon, will be expanded on two levels. The Atelier Brancusi, located for the moment outside the Center Pompidou, in the square, will be located in the heart of the National Museum of Modern Art. The space it currently occupies will be transformed into a place of resources and research.

During the works, the activity of the Pompidou Center will continue through partnerships established or strengthened with numerous museums in Paris or in the regions, as well as abroad.

Partner of major museums

The Grand Palais, which is expected to reopen when the Pompidou closes, will be your privileged partner. He will be “a major player in programming him,” said Laurent Le Bon.

The Center will also collaborate with the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Palais de Tokyo, the Quai Branly, the Cité de l’architecture and the Center des Monuments Nations. Collaborations with the Center Pompidou-Metz, Lille 3000, the Avignon Festival or the Biennale de la danse de Lyon are also planned.

Part of the collections will move to Massy (Essonne), where the Center Pompidou Francilien – Fabrique de l’art will open its doors in 2026. This new conservation center will eventually house the 140,000 works in the collection. It will receive professionals and will also have programming aimed at all audiences.

The famous transparent caterpillar, where the escalators are located, it had already been renovated between 2019 and 2021.

modernization

Announced in 2021 by the then Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, these modernization and asbestos removal works, which will cost 262 million euros, were initially to be extended from 2023 to 2027, year of the 50th anniversary of the foundation.

This work had become indispensable due to the corrosion and wear and tear suffered by the enormous building, which houses in particular very important collections of modern and contemporary art, large exhibition spaces and a very extensive library.

Upon reopening, the museum spaces will maintain the same positioning but the suspension will be redesigned in a “multidisciplinary perspective”. New spaces are designed for young people, as well as the expansion of its library.

The renovated version of the museum therefore wants to be able to face the Bourse du Commerce of the Pinault Collection and the brand new building of the Louis Vuitton Foundation and its impressive modern environment.