Maurizio Cattelan & The Centre Pompidou Collection
08/05/25 till 02/02/27
Since it opened, the Centre Pompidou-Metz has been privileged to present numerous works from the collection of the Centre Pompidou. To celebrate this rich partnership, this exhibition will present works that are rarely exhibited and pieces that one would never suspect were in the collection, showcasing movements from the history of art in all its complexity. It will feature the wall from the studio of André Breton as well as Marcel Duchamp’s chess table which recently joined the collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne.
The exhibition will explore the concept of Sunday, a multifaceted subject that has inspired multiple associations amongst the curators – brought together around the artist Maurizio Cattelan – raising social, political and aesthetic questions that are important in present-day society. It will look at, among other things, the division between leisure time and work time, private and public spaces, spirituality, light and the potential of art to imagine alternative worlds or offer melancholic meditations. mehr
It will be divided into 27 sections organised in alphabetical order, similar to the system of Gilles Deleuze, each section bearing the title of a slogan, lines from a poem, novel or song, such as B for ‘Bats-toi’ or Q titled ‘Quand nous cesserons de comprendre le monde’. The 27th section will be named after a new letter or a new symbol, invented for the exhibition. Drawing on this repertoire of ideas, the inmates of the women’s prison on Giudecca will write texts inspired by these 27 titles, which will be scattered around the exhibition, and highlight the fact that artistic transmission has no boundaries.
A selection of paintings, sculptures, installations and films from the collection of the Centre Pompidou will dialogue with works by Maurizio Cattelan, from his earliest pieces, notably Stadium, a giant table football, to his more recent creations like Comedian and Felix. In addition, the exhibition will embrace a larger chronological field than that of the 20th and 21st centuries, through the presence of Gradiva and a group of rare manuscripts and books from the Vatican museum, showing the power of ancient mythical sources for modern and contemporary art.
The exhibition will be designed by the Florentine studio Archivio Personale and will be punctuated by large installations, usually on permanent display in Paris, such as Plight by Joseph Beuys. These will transform the galleries into a wealth of poetic experiences, which will take the form of worlds that are an invitation to wander.