The exhibition “Philippe Cognée. The after painting, at the Bourdelle Museum, unfolds in the wing designed by Christian de Portzamparc. Nicolas Borel via the BOUrdelle museum
REPORT – Gently renovated, the sculptor’s Parisian workshop in Paris reopens. The painter Philippe Cognée is the first artist to exhibit his carte blanche there.
Spring has returned Bourdelle Museum which reopens after a fundamental restoration campaign. It will have lasted two years and led to seven months of total closure (total cost of the operation 5 million euros). And that’s the magic of these backup and restore jobs, you hardly notice it. The reunion with the house-workshop of the living god of sculpture that was Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) is sweet, despite the size of the company. It was necessary to disburse to strengthen the foundations; inject concrete into the underlying quarries; reinforce the structure of the building, built in half-timbered construction in 1878, with a cage made of vertical metal sections which double the wooden posts, but must remain almost invisible; undo and redo the workshop slab; restore parquet, paneling, mezzanine… While leaving the air of time which makes the indescribable charm of the place. “The souls who have lived there must continue”quotes Ophelie Ferlier-Bouat…
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