Floor show

Fondation Cartier's new Parisian space, designed by Jean Nouvel, is challenging the world of curatorial possibilities

- AMY SERAFIN

In 1984, the French sculptor César told Cartier president Alain Dominique Perrin that it took public museums too much time to organise exhibitions. So Perrin decided to create the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, where decisions would be made quickly and artists given total freedom. That year, it opened on an estate outside Paris, becoming France’s first corporate sponsor of contemporary art.

Ten years later, it made its way into the capital, to a steel-and-glass building on Boulevard Raspail designed by Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel. Now, the pioneering institution is entering a whole new era, relocating to vast premises in the heart of Paris, with an even more radical renovation by Nouvel.

Located next to the Musée du Louvre, the Fondation Cartier’s new home has a very Parisian history. It started out as the city’s first luxury hotel, opening in time for the 1855 Universal Exposition. High-end boutiques on the ground and mezzanine floors became so popular that the hotel moved out and the building became a department store, the Grands Magasins du Louvre (the inspiration for Emile Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames). It later housed an antiques mall before finally closing in 2018. For the building's newest chapter, Nouvel left the façade untouched and gutted the interior, freeing up 8,500 sq m for public spaces, including 6,500 sq m for exhibitions. 'This project doesn't impose contemporary architecture; it explores the possibilities inside the existing framework,' he says. 'The history of the place becomes an active material, a fertile constraint.'