City of Nîmes celebrates 30 years of Carrè d'Art. Events through December

Designed by British architect Lord Norman Foster, the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France, an imposing glass and steel structure built in front of the temple known as the Maison Carrée (“Square House”), a Roman building from the first century B.C., was inaugurated on May 9, 1993. Used as a contemporary art museum, over the years it has enriched its collection, one of the largest collections of contemporary art, both nationally and internationally.

The museum’s 2023 season will be dedicated to celebrating its collection, and the 30th anniversary will also mark the beginning of an era in the city of Nîmes in which contemporary art will occupy a key place in this city, which has an exceptional historical heritage, but whose identity is also decidedly modern. Until December 2023, the 30th anniversary will be celebrated with contemporary art exhibitions in variouscultural venues: in the Musée du Vieux Nîmes, the Museum of Natural History, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Musée des Cultures Taurines, and the Musée de la Romanité. The Musée de la Romanité, on the other hand, is hosting a solo exhibition by Oliver Laric, who has worked with archaeological collections.

The program in brief

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Carré d’Art, Jean-Marc Prévost, General Director of the Carré d’Art Museum of Contemporary Art, has joined forces with the five other major museums in Nîmes, the Carré d’Art Library, and the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, to create a program of exhibitions, activities, and events, organized around several key moments.

Museum of Contemporary Art. A series of exhibitions will offer a special perspective of the works in the permanent collection, situating them in their historical context, whether aesthetic or political. The collection will be presented at a specific time and will feature different perspectives, all aimed at creating a narrative of artistic activity in recent decades. As the works that are part of this narrative unfold, they will pave the way for many more works to come in the future.

The Melody of Things. Perspectives on Collections: exhibition on view through September 17, 2023. This presentation provides an opportunity to discover or revisit works from the movements of the 1960s, such as Nouveau Réalisme and Supports-Surfaces. It also includes more contemporary offerings, along with French and German paintings from the 1980s and the presence of major artists. The exhibition space will cover two levels of the museum. Particularly noteworthy will be the ways in which figuration and abstraction maintain a constantly renewing dialogue, as well as the importance of narrative in the creation of images and representations of the world. The exhibition will also highlight the diversity of media used in recent decades: painting, montage, installation, video and performance.

Complementing this selection are the “reflections” of three artists from different generations, all of whom are connected to the museum’s history: Tarik Kiswanson, Suzanne Lafont and Walid Raad. Then there are the exhibitions, beginning with the solo show of Martine Syms (through Sept. 17, 2023), an artist who makes use of video, with a preference for short formats, to explore representations of black bodies in contemporary visual culture. And then again Artist ’s Books until June 30, 2023 at the Archives Center, Carré d’Art: artist’s books are the focus of this exhibition. The public will be able to discover the various ways in which the artists in the collection have appropriated this medium: Etel Adnan, Jean-Michel Alberola, Anna Boghiguian, Robert Filliou, Annette Messager, Martial Raysse, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Daniel Spoerri... along with several artist’s books by Christian Boltanski, which were acquired by the museum between 2014 and 2018, following a generous donation by Bob Calle (the museum’s first curator, who passed away in 2015).

Instead, from October to December 2023 is the Supra exhibition, a physics outreach project conceived in 2018 as a co-production of three organizations: La Physique Autrement (research group of the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, University of Paris Saclay), La Rotonde (CCSTI de Mines Saint-Etienne), and the Cité du Design of Saint Etienne. The theme of the exhibition is at the center of a program of cultural initiatives dedicated to the popularization of science, and will also inaugurate the beginning of the Year of Physics.

Carré d’Art’s 30th anniversary celebrations will then extend to other museums in the city, with an exhibition of contemporary artworks that resonate with their collections.

Statements

“Nîmes is a city with an exceptional historical heritage, poised between 2,000 years of history, yet it remains a resolutely modern city, firmly rooted in its times,” says Jean-Paul Fournier, mayor of Nîmes. “Created 30 years ago by Lord Norman Foster, the Carré d’Art is a perfect example of the city’s dual identity. This anniversary is an opportunity to rediscover the splendid exhibitions of the Museum of Contemporary Art, whose international reputation stands alone.”

“Under the leadership of Jean-Marc Prévost, Director of the Carré d’Art, who will coordinate events to commemorate the museum’s 30th anniversary,” says Sophie Roulle, Assistant Commissioner for Culture, “all of the city’s museums will offer visitors with a space dedicated to contemporary art from the Carré d’Art collections.”

City of Nîmes celebrates 30 years of Carrè d'Art. Events through December

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