Chinese museum celebrates start of five-year collaboration with France’s Pompidou Centre
- Pompidou Centre chief says it is committed to showing off ‘charm and value’ of Chinese art
- Project means Shanghai museum is bringing works by artists such as Picasso and Chagall to China
The Pompidou Centre began its first Asian collaboration at the newly opened riverside West Bund Museum in Shanghai on Tuesday, marking a significant step in China’s efforts to become a global force in the arts.
Among those at the inauguration of the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum Project was French President Emmanuel Macron.
Serge Lasvignes, president of the Pompidou Centre, said the project was expected to foster more collaboration between East and West.
“The Pompidou has always been committed to showcasing the charm and value of the Chinese art scene, and we believe that this relationship will be further strengthened,” Lasvignes said. “It will help to generate more dialogue between artists and the cultural institutions of East and West.”
The museums said their first five years of collaboration at the campus in Shanghai’s Xuhui district would include three 18-month regular displays and 10 six-month special displays.
During the first five years, the Pompidou Centre in Paris will hold three exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art. The museums will also host staff training and exchanges.
The West Bund Museum is expected to open its doors to the public on Friday with “The Shape of Time”, featuring works by Western and Chinese artists including Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Ding Yi, Cai Guo-Qiang, Marc Chagall and Jackson Pollock.
Lasvignes said the Pompidou Centre chose China for its Asian expansion because the country had a huge arts market and many foreign artists were willing to work there.
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“The art world has multiple centres,” he said. “We came to Shanghai because we wanted to enhance our understanding of China and we realised the importance, diversity and richness of the Chinese art scene.”
The Pompidou Centre’s other outposts are in Brussels, Belgium, and the southern Spanish city of Malaga.
Sichuan Fine Arts Institute professor He Guiyan said the “project will have a positive impact on Shanghai’s art scene as well as China’s art museums”.
He said modern art was not very popular with mainland audiences who often misunderstood what it was about but that they would come to appreciate it.
“Shanghai has the history and population base,” He said. “Shanghai is China’s first modernised city and the birthplace of the country’s modern art.
“Shanghai is [also] China’s economic and financial centre. Modern art begins to influence the public from the middle-class and elite groups, so it’s no problem for residents to gradually accept modern art.”
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The West Bund Museum – owned by a Shanghai municipal government-backed developer – was designed by British architect David Chipperfield.
The museum is one of several arts venues along the Huangpu River, a former centre of manufacturing. In recent years, Shanghai authorities have tried to regenerate the West Bund area as a cultural centre.
