Alive and well: the Centre Pompidou today: with a satellite outpost due to open in Metz, plans to annex two vacant floors at the Palais de Tokyo and consistently inventive programming, the Pompidou turns 30 with grace

Art in America, Oct, 2007 by Phyllis Tuchman

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If there had not been construction delays of all sorts, the anniversary year might have concluded with the opening of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a satellite outpost of the museum, located in a medieval town 195 miles from Paris in northeast France. The high-speed train station opened there on time, on June 10. The museum's modular structure is now expected to be inaugurated in 2009. Architects Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, using wood, white fiberglass and a Teflon membrane, have borrowed bridge-building techniques to support three large open-space galleries, unencumbered by vertical supports and topped by a hexagonal roof. Interdisciplinary displays will emphasize the contemporary, with large objects borrowed from the overflowing storerooms in Paris. If you were to visit the Metz museum every two years, you would never see the same things twice.

In addition, around Bastille Day this summer, the Pompidou announced plans as original and unconventional as its signature building. In 2010, the Pompidou will open exhibitions on two currently vacant floors of the edifice that houses the Palais de Tokyo, across town on avenue du President Wilson. After renovations there, the museum will have an additional 139,931 square feet of exhibition space. Catherine Grenier, who has served as chief curator of contemporary collections at the Pompidou, where she organized such popular shows as "Los Angeles, 1955-1985," "The Pop Years" and "Big Bang," has been named to run this new space. Expect to see solo shows by midcareer and established artists in design and the visual arts on the second floor, while video, experimental film, independent movies and other kinds of events and performances will commandeer the four screening rooms on the plaza level. The emphasis will be on French artists, but the program will nonetheless be international in scope. And, as Pompidou director Alfred Pacquement reminded visitors last spring, the Palais de Tokyo is open until midnight, as is its popular cafe. Along with the neighboring Musee de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, this should emerge as one of the hottest places in Europe to see contemporary art.

RELATED ARTICLE: Alfred Pacquement on the Centre Pompidou: Past, Present and Future.

In connection with the Centre Pompidou's 30th anniversary, I recently spoke with Alfred Pacquement, director of the Musee National d'Art Moderne/ Centre de Creation Industrielle (CCI), a position he has held since 2000. A graduate of the University of Paris, where he majored in art history, Pacquement began his career as curator of the first exhibition at the National Center for Contemporary Art and as commissioner of the 1971 edition of the Paris Biennale. After a stint as a curator at the Centre Pompidou, he twice worked in the ministry of culture. In addition, Pacquement has been director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, as well as the Jeu de Paume.

Phyllis Tuchman: What should the phrase "Depuis 1977," which appears in some of your current publicity and which refers to the opening of the Centre Pompidou, evoke for the general public?