Inside the rotunda there’s a 360-degree mural representing French trade across the continents. The 1,400 square-meter painting was executed in 1889, timed to when France held the Universal Exposition. When Pinault took over the space, it took a team of 24 people working for six months to restore it.
The Bourse’s first exhibition is called “Ouverture,’’ French for “opening.” In total, 7,000 square meters are devoted to the public and the cultural program at the Bourse de Commerce.
“There isn’t a single piece of art in this exhibition that hasn’t been picked by Pinault himself,’’ Bethenod says during a press viewing. The collection’s curator is Caroline Bourgeois, who’s worked with Pinault since 2007. Jean-Jacques Aillagon heads the Bourse de Commerce. He was previously Culture Minister under the late President Jacques Chirac.
Inside the cylinder on the ground floor, visitors will find “Untitled’’ (2011-2020) by Urs Fischer. This monumental piece consists of nine wax sculptures, including a replica of The Rape of the Sabine Women by the 16th century sculptor Giambologna. “It’s a metaphor for the passing of time since the shape of the sculptures will change as the wax melts,’’ Bethenod says.
On the same level, near the bookshop, a large, brightly colored painting called “Ici plage, comme ici bas,’’ from 2012 by Martial Raysse is reminiscent of a Renaissance frieze. A crowd of sunbathers, peasants and carnival-goers fills the canvas, while the Montagne Sainte-Victoire appears in the background.
Also on the ground floor near the elevator, a white mouse pokes its head out of a hole in a wall. Ryan Gander’s mechanical creature from (2019) “attempts to speak, but stutters and stammers, disrupting the atmosphere and the quiet of the museum with its child’s voice,’’ the exhibition text informs us.
Cats rest on drums of various heights in “Standing Room Only’’ (1996) and “High Level of Cats’’ (1998) by David Hammons. It’s the first time his works—30 pieces in total—will be shown at this scale in France, Bethenod says. The gallery also includes Hammons’s lacerated American flag whose colors have been changed to Panafrican ones, Bethenod continues, adding that “90% of this opening exhibition’s pieces hadn’t been shown before.”
Visitors can then take the stairs along the cylinder to reach the gallery of photographs on the first floor. 11 images of “Untitled Film Stills,’’ (1977-1979) by Cindy Sherman are displayed here. The artist, who’s known to impersonate different characters in her pictures, was also granted a retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton last year. Next to her stills is a triptych by Richard Prince from the series “Untitled (Cowboy),” (2015-2016) for which he appropriated the 1960s advertising campaign designed for a famous cigarette brand, staging an iconic character, the exhibition tells us, which is part of the “great American dream.”
The second floor features portraits and sculptures that focus on the “human figure,’’ Bethenod says. Artists of diverse backgrounds are displayed, including Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, whose work is currently on view at Tate Britain in London. The gallery also includes Xinyi Cheng, an artist born in 1989 who lives between Shanghai and Paris. Her paintings, organizers say, capture gestures of friends and acquaintances.
A level above, on the rotunda balconies on the third floor, pigeons lurk. “Others’’ (2011) is a creation by Maurizio Cattelan, the Italian art star behind the infamous banana that was duct-taped to a wall at Miami’s Art Basel fair in 2019. These pigeons, Bethenod says, are intended to be reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds; it’s an attempt to make visitors more aware, and potentially, more uncomfortable, about their surroundings, he explains.
If visitors head to the basement, they’ll be able to immerse themselves in the studio with “Offspring’’ (2020) by Pierre Huyghe. The artist offers a light show in semi-darkness with the soundtrack of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie number 1, a melody that’s constantly being re-written thanks to artificial intelligence, says Bethenod.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.