Le Centre Pompidou-Metz a lancé une campagne publicitaire par voie d'affiches à l'approche de son inauguration par le président Nicolas Sarkozy le 11 mai et de son ouverture au public le lendemain.
Trois mille affiches sont diffusées en France, déclinées en trois versions sur lesquelles les artistes Picasso, Dali et Warhol déclarent :"Je m'installe à Metz".
Conçue par l'agence Leg, la campagne est cofinancée par Metz Métropole, la Ville de Metz et Metz Métropole Développement.
Le nouveau centre d'art, conçu par les architectes japonais Shigeru Ban et français Jean de Gastines, ouvrira avec une ambitieuse exposition intitulée "Chef d'oeuvre?" qui présentera 780 oeuvres sur 5.000 mètres carrés.
Les festivités inaugurales se dérouleront du 12 au 16 mai. Pendant ces cinq jours, le public aura accès gratuitement au bâtiment au toit protecteur en forme de "chapeau chinois" et à l'exposition d'ouverture.
(English Synopsis):
This is a very strange fish. What first strikes the eye about the Pompidou-Metz is its bizarre, undulating roof. This complex structure, made of no fewer than 10 miles of laminated spruce and larch, is an extraordinary creation, drooping over the concrete, steel and glass core of the building in a seemingly random fashion, as if a passing bird had dropped a giant floppy hat on its head.
Coated in fibreglass, the roof has been shaped as much for practical reasons as for aesthetic ones – to keep sun, rain and snow at bay. It is, I can't help thinking, the building's best and most redeeming feature. Up close and on the inside, concrete, steel and glass take over, while every glance upwards allows another view of this glorious timber form.
The Pompidou Centre in Paris, opened in 1977, is one of the most visited art galleries in the world. So it makes perfect sense that it should choose to expand – creating this regional outpost in Metz, north-east France, a short, sensationally fast (1hr 25mins) TGV ride away from the capital. The Pompidou-Metz, rising up as if from the ocean like a great conch, was meant to open three years ago, but such experimental architecture rarely goes exactly to plan, and I suspect that roof might be to blame. It is now seven years since the design contest was won by a team comprising Shigeru Ban (Tokyo), Jean de Gastines (Paris) and Philip Gumuchdjian (London). Their curious new building, due to open next month, is just two minutes walk from the town's magnificent central station, designed like a castle by German architect Jürgen Kröger in the early 1900s.
