Art heritage associated with Belarus in the museums of the world

Museums  —  Pompidou Center (Paris,  France)


The Georges Pompidou Center in Paris is a national center for art and culture dedicated to exploring and supporting a variety of art trends. It is popularly called the "Center Pompidou" (French Center Pompidou) or "Center Beaubourg", as it is located in the Beaubourg quarter of the 4th arrondissement of Paris.

It houses several cinemas, concert venues, a theater, a library, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Center for Industrial Design, the Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music, permanent and temporary exhibitions. It houses the most significant collection of 20th century art and the latest art in Europe (Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Juan Miro, Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico, Yves Klein, Rene Magritte, Piet Mondrian , Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and others).

In 1969, the first year of his presidency, Georges Pompidou set aside a large area in the center of Paris for the construction of a new type of cultural center, where it was planned to transfer the collection of the first French museum of modern art, created in 1818. 681 participants from 49 countries took part in the competition for the best architectural design of the building. The international jury selected the project of three young architects: Renzo Piano, Gianfranco Francini and Richard Rogers.

The architects decided on an unusually bold artistic step - bringing all communications to the outside of the building. This added extravagance to the building and at the same time allowed a significant increase in the internal usable area. During construction, it was decided to paint the outer pipes, cables and wires in different colors: red, yellow, green, blue and white, depending on their function. The Center building has 10 levels, occupying 10 thousand square meters and is a mixture of architectural styles. It is a rectangular structure made of glass and white metal frames, entwined with blue ventilation ducts, green plumbing, yellow electrical pipes, and among this diversity, red elevator and escalator cabins move.

The official opening ceremony took place on January 31, 1977. Today, the Georges Pompidou Center has become one of the hallmarks of Paris. It is visited by almost 4 million guests every year.


Material preparation  —  Tatiana Bembel,  18 December 2021.