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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2014 22:17:23 GMT
I'm sure that most of you are anxiously awaiting a trip to the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, but the opening date keeps getting pushed back. It was supposed to open in 2013, but now they're talking about 2015. However, it should be noted that the Sorbonne of Abu Dhabi has been open for several years already and is doing quite well. Abu Dhabi is trying really hard to be the cultural centre of the Emirates and has given itself the additional challenge of not turning itself exclusively to the English speaking world to do so. But frankly, putting a Louvre in Lens is a much more unusual move than putting one in a foreign country. The idea started back in 2003 when the Ministry of Culture asked all of the 22 regions of France if they were interested in having an annex of the Louvre in their area. Oddly enough, only one region expressed interest, and that was the " Nord-Pas de Calais" which is scrunched up next to the border of Belgian Flanders. The regional authorities proposed six cities as possible hosts. One of them dropped out (Béthune) and then there were five... How was the winning city chosen? Now this is pretty amazing in itself -- they chose the worst off city with the highest unemployment (more than 20%) because one of the ideas behind the project was to create a new dynamic in an area with severe problems. This was a source of both pride and shame in Lens. Lens is a mining town, and France no longer has a single mine in the metropole. (The nickel mines of New Caledonia in the Pacific are still going strong.) Lens lived nearly exclusively off mining, so the whole area is a wasteland. The very last mines closed in the 1980's. Mining in Lens started in 1852 and the last mine shaft closed in 1986. It was decided to build the Louvre on the site of an abandoned mine. The site chosen was an abandoned coal mine ("pit #9") less than a kilometre from the only pride and joy of the city -- the Bollaert football stadium, which was built in 1932. Lens is perhaps the most football mad city of France, and the stadium holds 41,229 spectators, while the population of Lens is only 36,728. Football keeps them alive, whether they have a job or not. There are quite a few places like that, actually. Anyway, the Louvre was designed by a Japanese architectural firm, and construction began in 2009. The "pit #9" site was consolidated, after having operated as a mine from 1886 to 1980. The museum opened in December 2012. At the moment, there are shuttle buses from the train station to go there, for people who don't want to take the long walk on the special walkway, but there will be a direct tramway line in 2020. Things take longer in poor cities. The Louvre Lens is free for the time being, at least until the end of 2014, at which time the policy will be re-evalutated. I suppose that it will be considered a victory when they decide that an entry fee can be charged. Nevertheless, in just one year the Louvre Lens has become the most visited museum in France outside of the Paris metropolitan area. Most of the visitors are French and Belgian.   I went there about 45 minutes before opening time (10 a.m.) so that I could explore the grounds.  The walkways are a bit strange, but I'm sure there is a reason for that. No, I don't know it.  The building has very "pure" lines, I suppose you should say.  Not at all like that old Louvre in Paris...  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2014 22:30:01 GMT
I had plenty of time, so I walked around the entire huge building.  I saw this group of hikers (not museum goers) a bit later.  The mine houses below have apparently received UNESCO world heritage status. One tends to wonder sometimes...   There was a whole forest attached to the museum park.  This public toilet in the middle of the forest seemed very surprising.  I don't know where the hikers were going, but they were going! They even had those hiking sticks.   The shaded walls of the museum were still frosted.   Opening time was near. People had begun to congregate.  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2014 22:37:21 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2014 6:59:20 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Mar 4, 2014 7:11:14 GMT
It most definitely is an advantage to be an early bird Kerouac! You got more than just the worm, having spaciousness to angle your camera in any direction without distractions(people)!
Was this a day trip from Paris?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2014 7:17:19 GMT
It's only been a year, but the presence of the museum is having the desired effect on the city. There is a lot of new construction and many signs of growing municipal pride. It will be interesting to see how things have progressed five years from now. |
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Post by mossie on Mar 5, 2014 15:01:52 GMT
An excellent public project.
The toilettes in the forest amused me, is it "Be kind to the bears year"
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Post by gabriele on Mar 10, 2014 6:27:21 GMT
Hello Kerouac, wonderful visit, thank you very much. I wonder if the high percentage of visitors from nearby regions could be attributed to the lack of foreign tourists? It would an incentive to me, if I lived there... On the paths...they make sense to me. The building itself is so rigid and fixed; it presents itself: Here I am. But the meandering paths with obstacles (the holes) and separations break the format: The interior layout does the same. It makes the visitor not simply march up to the entrance (as many in other museums do)...to be confronted by art/history/creativity which requires a non-linear, non-logical state of mind to really appreciate it. Some museums have sculptures outside to engage the visitor with art before they enter the galleries; the Louvre pyramid brings people to another encounter with the non-traditional approach to art (another Asian architect)...so the Japanese firm took a limited budget and with harsh winters as a concern, came up with something that required the visitor to deal with impractical things where function is usually the main consideration. As you did..to say you don't know why they did it. It made you think...but logic could not give you an answer. On "Some of the people in this part of France probably spent evenings like this only about 50 years ago." George de La Tour painted two versions of The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame: The Louvre loaned their copy to the LA County Museum of Art and it was displayed next to their version and in return, LACMA loaned their copy to the Louvre for a similar display. Here's the LACMA version: collections.lacma.org/node/238963LACMA is not a great museum but it does have some nice works. There is also the Japanese Pavillion which contains a great collection of Japanese art, sculpture, netsuke and screens. It is laid out so you start at the top and follow a slowly sloping ramp down, with scrolls, screens and such displayed much as they would be in the classical Japanese house...so the guest encounters first one, then another, then another. There is a small stream of water that follows the path and creates a harmonious sound to accompany the art. Only in two small rooms (that one walks through to another area) are the walls straight and the art in a line on the wall. In San Franciso (long ago) I used to go to the Japanese Tea Garden in the early morning before the neighboring De Young Museum (in Golden Gate Park) would open. Even on warm days the fog would linger and following the paths (yea, meandering) one felt the path might have just been created, that it wasn't there before. I have had a great affection for Japanese art, design and garden ever since then. The Japanese Pavillion has another virtue; like the museum at Lens, it is not crowded at all...so I know what a pleasure that can be. My other thought on the walkway was that perhaps the holes were designed to percoate the rain into the subsoil (hence the gravel)....approaches like this are becoming more popular where the lack of enough rain or other water make the cost of water for lawns a serious concern (esp in California). It also works against the flooding caused by runoff, always a good thing. added thought: tour guides must go crazy taking people to that museum...'it's not organized!'... (etc).... again, thank you... gabriele (sfgirl) |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2014 10:54:45 GMT
By hunting around, I was able to find an article that explained that the round holes in the walkways are reminders that the site was a coal mine, and the "gravel" in the circles is coal. The straighter paths follow where the rail lines used to be for the coal trains. Now I will be able to sleep at night.  |
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Post by gabriele on Mar 11, 2014 8:22:23 GMT
thanks---it's still symbolism, which is a good thing...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2014 6:24:56 GMT
I just thought I would add a little update about the Louvre Abu Dhabi to this report. Construction is already a few years late, but the dome on top of it has finally been completed. The museum itself is an independent building in the shade of the dome. The price tag (paid entirely by Abu Dhabi) is about a billion euros. They are also building a Guggenheim museum next door, because they don't want to be seen as a shopping destination like Dubai.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 4, 2017 13:44:37 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 4, 2017 14:44:42 GMT
Excellent report K2. Thanks!
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 4, 2017 14:46:04 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 5, 2017 17:31:39 GMT
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Post by bjd on Dec 5, 2017 17:59:19 GMT
It looks like a great way to lay out a museum, mixing things up in such a clean and simple space.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 5, 2017 18:42:34 GMT
Absolutely magnificent, as are your bracketing photos of the frosty morning!
What a glorious collection, and the giant display is perfect. I really love the pieces you've showcased here and absolutely adore the glass wall. Sorry to burble, but this must be one of the best museums in the world.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 6, 2017 11:01:07 GMT
It is a totally wonderful place in a completely lonely location.
Nevertheless, by the time I left, busloads of pensioners were piling in, no doubt taking advantage of the days with no admission fee.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 10, 2018 19:37:53 GMT
There is an interesting debate at the moment about exposing the Mona Lisa for a certain amount of time in Lens. The curators always say no, but the Mona Lisa has been loaned twice in the past in spite of what the curators say. In 1962, the Minister of Culture sent it to the United States on the SS. France. It was exposed at the National Gallery in Washington and then in New York at the Met. In 1974 it went to Japan with a brief display in Moscow on the return trip. Lens is only 203 kilometres from Paris, so it is likely that it will go there for a visit no matter what the curators say. As magnificent as it is, the Louvre in Lens needs a little boost after 5 years of insufficient appreciation. Our current Minister of Culture is totally in favour of the idea, and the entire region of Hauts de France is behind the project. The sports fans have been deploying a huge Mona Lisa banner at the matches. img.bfmtv.com/c/1256/708/e0232/43f84beb208237884ebf2b5604f.jpegI'm pretty sure that Mona Lisa is due for a little holiday north of Paris. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2018 1:07:34 GMT
I suppose it is fair for what might be the most famous painting in the world to be shared with this other Louvre. But having seen the hoards in the Paris Louvre thronging to see it because of its fame, it's hard not to want the Lens Louvre to maintain the serene purity it now enjoys. Is that too elitist, too short-sighted, too something?
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Post by questa on Feb 12, 2018 6:27:07 GMT
It is the vexed question of all travel...find somewhere that is too beautiful to not share. A trickle of interested people will make the effort to come and admire. They soon need roads, food shops and toilets. The local people need to make a living. Soon it is a noisy, tatty area and the visitors wonder why the place had been recommended as pristine beauty.
The dilemma of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
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Post by bjd on Feb 12, 2018 6:49:00 GMT
I have never understood why such a big deal is made of the Mona Lisa. She seems to have become a Renaissance celebrity, famous for being famous.
So I don't see why Lens should have to have it if it's just to attract more crowds.
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Post by questa on Feb 12, 2018 7:02:37 GMT
What about the thousands of tourists who have worked and saved for years to see Paris and the Mona Lisa. Finally get there to find she is taking a holiday in Lens. I missed out on seeing the Faberge eggs which were on loan somewhere when I was in Russia. I was really disappointed. (read - pissed off)
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 12, 2018 7:13:13 GMT
Anything that will take some of the pressure off Paris is fine with me. And the train from Paris to Lens takes less than an hour. I will understand the irritation of tourists in Europe the inevitable day that the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo or something like that will be sent on an extended visit to the Louvre in Abu Dhabi.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 23, 2021 15:02:23 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 23, 2021 15:15:32 GMT
One thing that was mentioned in the French articles about this installation is that all of those artworks in storage are available on loan to just about any museum in the world that makes a request. The Louvre in Lens is also particularly delighted because since most of their collection is meant to be rotated regularly, this makes it 100 times easier for them, with Liéven being only 4 kilometres from Lens.
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