The property developer Emerige group plans to build an extensive art centre and 13,000 sq. m art hotel on Île Seguin, an island in the western suburbs of Paris that once housed the Renault car factory. The new development, called S17 & S18, will transform the former industrial site into “one of the biggest cultural hubs in Europe”, says a spokeswoman for the Emerige.
The S17 centre will show contemporary art drawn from the collection of Laurent Dumas, the founder of Emerige, whose 1,300-strong holdings include works by Anselm Kiefer and Pierre Soulages. Jérôme Sans, the former director of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, will be responsible for programming at the new centre, which will be designed by the Catalan architects RCR Arquitectes.
According to a project statement, “cultural partners close to Emerige are working to develop collaborative projects” at the art centre. These include the Fondation Giacometti in Paris and the Geneva-based Fondation Gandur pour l’Art.
Works by French contemporary artists will go on show in every room of the 220-room S18 hotel, which will be designed by the Austrian architecture practice Baumschlager Eberle. The “one bedroom, one work” scheme developed by Emerige will raise the profile of young French artists, the spokeswoman adds.
Construction at the site is due to begin next year, and is scheduled for completion in 2021. The redevelopment is solely funded by Emerige. The Boulogne-Billancourt council, which oversees the island, has thrown its weight behind the initiative.
The Emerige scheme is the latest attempt at turning the Île Seguin into a viable culture hub. In 2005, the French billionaire François Pinault abandoned plans to build a museum on the island, citing bureaucratic red tape as the reason.
Last September, Emerige and its financial partner, Addax and Oryx Group Limited (AOG), secured ownership of the island after signing an agreement with the French company SCI R4, a subsidiary of the Swiss conglomerate Euroasia. R4’s initial masterplan for the island, devised by the French architect Jean Nouvel, encompassed art galleries, an auction salesroom, and an exhibition space. The chief investor in the R4 scheme was Yves Bouvier, who has been embroiled in a number of international legal battles over the past year.
