A Belvedere for the Arts

The Fondation Cartier carries out its activities in France and in many regions around the world with the desire and ambition to make contemporary creation accessible to the widest possible audience. Through exhibitions projects and a programme of encounters and debates, live performances and talks tailored to local contexts as part of long-term cultural partnerships with institutions, it builds geographical bridges between cultural venues and fosters a genuine space for international dialogue.

The Fondation Cartier's new Paris premises, which are in a Haussmannian building dating from 1855 at number 2 Place du Palais-Royal, have been completely remodelled by architect Jean Nouvel. The dynamic architecture he designed, comprising five movable platforms, provides a fully modular space and variable lighting that allows a vast array of possibilities both in terms of events and exhibitions. The architecture acts as a veritable mechanism that serves the Fondation's raison d'être, that of being able to offer a broad range of visual arts, photography, cinema, artistic encounters, performances, live entertainment, and sciences. 

The audience policy has been reinforced as a result, with an ambitious offer that sits in line with the programming. In addition to a redesigned and enriched cultural mediation programme, the Fondation has created La Manufacture, a 300-square-meter space for education about art and through art, for all ages and profiles. It places the intelligence of the hand at the heart of its approach, drawing inspiration from traditions of transmission through gesture as pedagogical basis for its workshops, educational projects and creative programme series.

Two other spaces enrich a contemporary artistic programme open to the polyphony of 21st century modes of expression: an auditorium where performances, concerts and shows will be presented, alongside a rich program of encounters and debates, enabling creatives to engage in a dialogue as extension or counterpoint to the exhibitions; and a new bookstore which, alongside titles on multidisciplinary themes, will prominently feature the Fondation Cartier’s own publications and works produced in close collaboration with the artists.

Since 1984, the Fondation Cartier has published around 200 works. Its collection encompasses exhibition catalogs, artist monographs, compendia of texts, coloring books, and limited editions. More than mere reproductions of the exhibitions, the Fondation Cartier’s publications are both a field of exploration and a vessel for reflection by the artists, who actively participate in their conception.

Unleashing a world of possibilities, this new venue welcomes the public with open arms, focusing on the need to transmit, question and exchange through innovative educational programmes and shared aesthetic experiences. The Fondation Cartier is shifting in scale and reinventing itself in order to experiment and share with artists and audiences alike ever new ways of conceiving art.