The Centre Pompidou is turning 40—but there is no mid-life crisis in sight. To mark its anniversary, the institution is launching an ambitious year-long campaign to lend works to 75 exhibitions and events in 40 towns and cities across France. Its building, which opened on 31 January 1977, will also get a €100m facelift overseen by the architect Renzo Piano.
The Musée Fabre in Montpellier will present a joint exhibition of works by Francis Bacon and Bruce Nauman (1 July-5 November) as part of the programme; the show includes ten works drawn from the Pompidou. The museum will also loan works to an exhibition dedicated to the French sculptor Germaine Richier in the Abbey of Mont St Michel in Normandy this summer.
Meanwhile, the Pompidou is sending paintings and sculptures by Alexander Calder, Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana to the Biennale de Lyon, which this year is organised by Emma Lavigne, the director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz (20 September-31 December).
The refurbishment, scheduled to take place from 2018 to 2020, will upgrade structural elements, including the famous escalators that snake up the exterior of the building. The overhaul will mainly be funded by the French government, but the museum is also looking for additional sponsors, says a Pompidou spokesman.
Public funding for museums—including the Pompidou—could be slashed if the Front National’s Marine Le Pen wins the French presidential election in May. Serge Lasvignes, the Pompidou’s president, voiced his concerns about the candidate in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. “We would have to be in opposition to any government whose programme was about closing the mind or about cultural conservatism,” he said. “In that case, the Pompidou Centre and French culture would have to rediscover its militant role.”
