The Beautifully Renovated Bourse de Commerce in Paris
The building of the Bourse de Commerce is situated in the very heart of Paris in the 1st arrondissement (remember that Paris’s arrondissements are organized like a snail’s shell, starting at the center and spiraling outwards). Originally the site of a hôtel particulier built for Catherine de’ Medici in the 16th century, in 1767 the building became the Corn Exchange (Halle aux blés), then a commodities exchange (ancestor of the now digitalized commodities markets) and more recently the headquarters of the Parisian Chamber of Commerce. It is a circular building with a central courtyard, and a very particular double staircase (more on that later!). Over the years, a covered dome was added, presumably to protect the merchants and their produce. Around the outside of the building, 25 vaulted openings were created to facilitate the loading and unloading of the cereals that were traded here.
(Photo by Antonia Mahon)
This structure and organization of the building were retained in later modifications and renovations of the buildings. And it is this structure, that the Japanese architect Tadao Ando has transformed into François Pinault’s third exhibition space for his contemporary art collection (the other two being the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana in Venice).
Now, contemporary art (from 1960 to the present day) isn’t really my thing. Probably in a very unsophisticated way, I often feel that the artist is somehow ‘having me on’ or playing with me in a way I don’t understand. I have a memory of visiting the Palazzo Grassi in about 2008 and being baffled by one piece - a collection of bicycle inner tubes suspended on a rusty T structure. The accompanying explanatory plaque referenced both Sherwood Forest (of Robin Hood fame) and Macbeth… I moved on, feeling like I had totally missed the point (sorry, I neglected to note the name of the artist).
Suffice to say that I was mostly visiting the Fondation Pinault mainly to see Ando’s architecture. As he explains in the blurb on the website, he couldn’t touch the structure of the building as it is classified as a historical monument. Ando chose as inspiration Russian dolls, and installed a cylindrical concrete structure inside the covered inner courtyard.
(© Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, Niney et Marca Architectes, agence Pierre-Antoine Gatier. Photo Maxime Tetard)
The result could be compared (in theoretical terms) to I. M. Pei’s pyramids at the Louvre - it would have been impossible to use the same style as the building itself as it would have turned into a pastiche. The alternative, chosen by both Pei and Andro, was to design a resolutely contemporary addition which serves to reflect the beauty of the original building and provide contrast. Ando’s central rotunda in soft, gray concrete with its raw lack of decoration contrasts totally with the comparatively ornate mosaic floor, wrought iron balustrade and woodwork.
There is a central exhibition space inside the rotunda, illuminated by the glass dome overhead. You can go up the concrete staircases on the outside of the rotunda to access the first floor galleries and a circular viewing space on the second floor. This allows closer viewing of the painted panorama which circles below the dome, depicting commerce over five continents and through four seasons.
(Photo by Antonia Mahon)
The double staircase, dating from the 18th century, is a very interesting design. It’s what is called a double helix with two separate staircases winding around each other. It was invented to permit porters carrying sacks of corn not to bump into each other - one staircase being dedicated to bringing corn up and the other to bringing it down. This can be confusing as, currently, you have to be on the right staircase to gain access to the right floor! There is a similar staircase at the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley (designed by Leonardo da Vinci, no less) - I was very pleased with myself to have recognised this before reading the plaque!
And the art? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. I find it interesting that contemporary art can take so many forms. Two of the installations which I enjoyed during my visit last Friday (May 6, 2022) were centered around music. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster created a work called OPERA (QM.15) (until January 2, 2023). The artist’s voice melds with Callas’s most famous arias while she takes on the latter’s appearance, spectral in a completely dark space. It’s as if Callas is performing right there in front of you. Gave me goose-bumps!
Another musical installation I liked was the six hour-long film Luanda-Kinshasa by Stan Douglas (until June 13, 2022) where he carefully recreates an amazing jazz funk jamming session from the 1970s. Again the atmosphere is amazing, as the performers riff off each other’s sounds and their individual instrumentals are highlighted as the camera focuses on them then pans on. It’s hypnotic. I find it amusing that the performance (film) lasts six hours and the pieces all meld into each other so that the music is continuous. This means that the viewer has to decide when to leave, and in leaving is afraid to miss the ‘best’ bit.
(Photo by Antonia Mahon)
A further installation I appreciated is in the basement entitled Whose Utopia by Chinese artist Cao Fei (until June 13, 2022). The artist shows the working and living conditions of workers in an electrical bulb factory in a film surrounded by a physical installation of bunk beds with personal possessions and suspended laundry. The film also shows the same factory workers dancing and enjoying other hobbies in the same factory (impossible to imagine, hence the work’s title), as well as interviews with the workers where they speak of their families’ expectations of them and how hard they work for very little pay. Makes you think about where things come from and who produced them under which conditions, even something as seemingly trivial as a light bulb.
And a last note about a very Marcel Duchamp-esque installation in the Passage or space between the concrete rotunda and the original building. In one display case of Bertrand Lavier’s Retrospective Display (until September 30, 2022) there is a piece of blue car bodywork. With Pablo Picasso’s signature on it! This is a common sight around France as the car brand Citroën somehow managed to persuade Picasso’s descendents to sell them the rights to use the signature on some of their cars. I found it very playful and ironic. So, when you put a piece of bodywork with Picasso’s signature in a display case, in a museum, does it suddenly become art? Who’s to say that it’s not!
(Photo by Antonia Mahon)
We visited the Bourse de Commerce - Fondation Pinault at 6pm on a Friday evening. The visit took probably one and a half hours. Then we wandered up the rue du Louvre (past the newly renovated Poste du Rue du Louvre, famous for being open until midnight for last minute tax returns), through the beautiful Place des Victoires to the Galérie Vivienne for dinner at the Bistrot Vivienne.
After dinner we strolled through the gardens of the Palais Royale in the twilight, admired the cloisters and also the sculptural Colonnes de Buren.
Yet another example of mixing new with old. A fitting close to a lovely evening in Paris!