Review
Review
The city of Lyon created the Department of Contemporary Art: 975 m2 on two floors, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (Musée Saint Pierre) - Fine Arts Museum.
The Section of Contemporary Art was therefore named the Musée Saint Pierre Art Contemporain (Contemporary Art).
Think tank and coordination unit composed of four people, the purpose of the Contemporary Art Section was to:
- ensure the artistic management of the Espace Lyonnais d’Art Contemporain (ELAC)Lyon Contemporary Art Centre
- to devise its own exhibition programme
- to build up a collection of contemporary art
- to supervise the art library collection
- to coordinate Octobre des Arts (annual event present several dozen exhibitions simultaneously in Lyon and its suburbs).
An additional 500 m2 complemented the special exhibition area in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (Fine Arts Museum). The Musée Saint Pierre Art Contemporain then occupied 1400 m2, on three floors.
The Ville de Lyon and the Direction des Musées de France (French Museums Board) decided to jointly carry out a preliminary study for the location of a contemporary art museum on Quai Charles de Gaulle.
Thierry Raspail, curator of the Musée Saint Pierre Art Contemporain, drew up the general layout from which the study was to be developed.
The Direction des Musées de France (French Museums Board) granted the Contemporary Art Section the status of Contemporary Art Museum, which therefore won its independence with regards to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (Fine Arts Museum).
During Octobre des Arts 1988, the La couleur seule, l'expérience du monochrome (Just colour, the monochromatic experience) was to gather 215 works divided among the Musée Saint Pierre Art Contemporain, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain (ELAC), the Maison de Lyon (presently the Rectangle) and the Crypte de la Basilique de Fourvière (Fourvière Basilica Crypt). The exhibition attracted 56,000 visitors.
For its final year, Octobre des Arts brought together 140 events.
The first Lyon Contemporary Art Biennial, entitled L'amour de l'art (The love of art) , was organized to replace Octobre des Arts, therefore acting as a follow-up to the André Malraux Paris Biennial.
The second Contemporary Art Biennial, Et tous ils changent le monde (And they all change the world), was a confirmation of the success of such an event, with nearly 89,000 visitors during the five weeks of exhibition.
Beginning of the building of the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Cité Internationale in November.
The State offered aids for the creation of the museum.
The Museum of Contemporary Art left the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Fine arts Museum) to set up in the Cité Internationale, in the building designed by Renzo Piano.
The Museum of Contemporary Art was to inaugurate the third Lyon Biennial on Interactivité (Interactivity), on 19 December 1995. This biennial presented 63 artists who appropriated cinema legend, video culture and computer usage.
