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16/11/2005

Inaugural exhibition

Rodin Museum, Paris

The Rodin museum inaugurates its renovated chapel with the exhibition Sculpture in space, Rodin, Giacometti, Brancusi

On the exact date of the 88th anniversary of Rodin’s death, the museum that bears his name inaugurates the restructured and renovated chapel with the exhibition La sculpture dans l’espace, Rodin, Giacometti, Brancusi - Sculpture in space, Rodin, Giacometti, Brancusi. This is the second phase in the renovation works carried out on the museum, following the changes made in all the storage areas in Meudon. The chapel will now be able to host two temporary exhibitions per year. The gardens and the Biron mansion will be next on the list in the years to come. The private mansion will finally be completely dedicated to exhibit Rodin’s works.

From the chapel to the museum: 5 000 square meters distributed over 7 floors
The chapel has been restructured according to the drawings of Pierre-Louis Faloci, the project manager, totally respecting the original structure. The building has found brightness and logic in its organization by grouping all the offices together, offering a more pleasant reception area to the public and modernizing the temporary exposition room, that benefits from a spectacular use of the overhead, natural light. The mandate of the works was given to ICADE G3A, and a general construction company Pradeau Morin carried them out. The budget, 14 million euros all taxes included, was totally financed by the public authority.

The chapel’s history
When the Biron mansion was sold to the congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1820, one of the nuns’ first concerns was to build a chapel worthy of the name. Their wish finally came true in 1876. The chapel was built in two years by architect Jean Lisch (1828-1910) in a neo-gothic style, and was partly financed by the sale, in 1874, of certain wood panels of the Biron main house. A ministerial order dissolved the congregation on 10 July 1904, so the nuns hardly enjoyed their new church. When the Rodin museum opened in 1919, the nave was transformed into an exhibition room. Its tall roof was knocked down after World War II, thus giving it the “beheaded” aspect we have always known and which Pierre-Louis Faloci readjusted to its original shape.

The opening exposition: Sculpture in space, Rodin, Brancusi,Giacometti…

How high should a sculpture be placed? This is but one of the questions put forward by the remarkable presentation, 4 meters high, in the chapel’s renovated space, of the Bourgeois de Calais. Over one hundred sculptures, by Rodin in particular but by Brancusi, Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois as well as Didier Vermeiren and Richard Wentworth, focus on the question of the support of the work, the intermediary between the ground and the work, that contributes to give it some sense. By becoming an integral part of the work, the plinth finishes by taking the place of the sculpture, thus leading to the death of the traditional plinth.

Image: Auguste Rodin, Pas de deux with wings on a column, towards 1911 ?
Plaster H. 117 ; L. 30,6 ; D. 22,5 cm Paris, musée Rodin, S. 2480. Donation Rodin, 1916.

PUBLICATION :
Catalogue of the exhibition: 96 pages, 136 illustrations, Éditions du musée Rodin 29 €

CURATORSHIP:
Antoinette Romain
Scénography: Pierre-Louis Faloci

PRESS CONTACTS:
Clémence Goldberger Tel: 01 44186186 E mail: goldberger@musee-rodin.fr

HOURS:
Open everyday except monday
From 9.30 am to à 4.45 pm. Last admission 4.15 pm

ADMISSION FEES:
Full price: 7 euros Museum + exhibition + garden
Concessions: 5 euros 18-25 ans.
Free: under 18, unemployed, Cotorep, teachers

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