A large Giacometti school-museum will move to Les Invalides in 2026

An Alberto Giacometti museum-school, bringing together the largest collection in the world of the artist’s works (1901-1966), will be set up in 2026 in the former Invalides station and the basements of the famous Parisian esplanade, announced the Giacometti Foundation on Monday.

Located in this historic building, which was also the headquarters of Air France, this new place of 6,000 m2 will be equipped with “a museum presenting permanently and in rotation a large part of the some 10,000 works by Giacometti collected by the foundation”, told AFP Catherine Grenier, director of the foundation created in 2003 in Paris by the widow of the artist, Annette Giacometti.

Exhibitions and creative school

Plaster and bronze sculptures, paintings, drawings, decorative art objects, “most of them are not currently accessible to the public”, she specified. The museum-school will also house “exhibitions of modern and contemporary art linked to the spirit of Giacometti” and a “non-professional creation school aimed at everyone, children and adults, experienced or novices, offering courses in various disciplines, supervised by a group of artists,” she added.

The Giacometti Institute, located in the 14th arrondissement of the capital, will remain in place but “its activities will be redesigned”, according to Ms. Grenier. It currently houses Giacometti’s studio, measuring around twenty m2, which will be transferred to the future museum.

The building of the old station and its annexes completely renovated

The building of the former Invalides station and its underground annexes, created for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, will be completely renovated as part of a program of the City of Paris. The architects Dominique Perrault and Pierre-Antoine Gatier, as well as the landscape architect Louis Benech will imagine the transformation of this site.

“The extension of this foundation dedicated to the work of a major artist and the opening of a school confirms the artistic dynamism of Paris. This will also strengthen its international influence, we are delighted, ”said Carine Rolland, deputy mayor of Paris, in charge of culture, quoted in a press release from the Giacometti foundation.

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