Thematic articles

Musée d'orsay... Everything needs to be reviewed!

New rooms, new works, new decor... 25 years after its opening, the Musée d'Orsay is embarking on an unprecedented makeover. The €20.1 million project was financed 63% by the museum's own funds, 33% by the state and 4% by Elior. Half of the museum's surface area has been renovated and more than 1,000 of the 1,850 works on display have been relocated. It's the result of an impressive project that has taken more than two years, but without the museum closing its doors - apart, of course, from the recent six-day strike. Le Nouvel Orsay - an analysis.

Publicis Consultants, France, signs the advertising campaign for the reopening of the renovated premises of the Musée d'Orsay, with the message: Nous avons revu Orsay, tout est à revoir. Un nouveau regard, thus calling for a review, a revisiting, a re-examination, a rediscovery of a space and collections that already seemed to be well settled in a temporary refuge. The images, which allow the campaign to take various forms, enhance the concept of the 'museum (to) revisit' through faces - 'borrowed' from the multidisciplinary nature of the museum's collections - and fragmented to reveal gazes that hypnotize, mesmerize, fascinate, convince and ultimately bring us back.

"For a quarter of a century, the Musée d'Orsay has been charting the durability and success of its unique destiny. On the eve of its anniversary, it had to transform itself. About time! Architecture, eccladding, and signage are the most important changes the museum has made since 1986. Made necessary by the increasing number of visitors to the collections and the need to distribute the flow of visitors intelligently, the interior design work has enabled us to reconsider the overall presentation of the works and the logic of the visitor itinerary. The itinerary, to regain its fluidity and coherence, is now defined by the clear separation between impressionism and post-impressionism. As a result, each of these key moments in modern art gains added visibility. So we are invited to take part in a new "adventure of the gaze" in the heart of the 19th century, which art history is constantly "reinventing", to paraphrase Flaubert.

The Musée d'Orsay aims to bring many of its masterpieces back to the public eye. The opening of these new spaces on October 20, 2011 will unveil a completely renovated Impressionist gallery, a new hall for temporary exhibitions, the creation of five levels dedicated to decorative arts, and a café designed by the Campana brothers.

One of the major innovations in the presentation of the works is the use of a state-of-the-art lighting system that reproduces natural light almost perfectly, but in a directional manner. The result is a totally new way of appreciating the chromatic richness of the works. The second innovation: the abandonment of white. Nineteenth-century art, both painting and sculpture, calls for colored surfaces and a more delicate highlighting of chromatic elements. Gradually, since 2008, the museum has adopted the principle of the colored wall used in the exhibition. A painting by Courbet or a canvas by Manet calls for different backgrounds than Impressionist painting, which is much brighter and more flowing. Moreover, gilded frames, especially those used in Salon painting, find their visual functionality against a background of color.

In short, the aim is to regenerate the conditions for a gaze that is at the same time educated, free and imaginative. To restore a coherent discourse to the general path is to reconstruct the historical thread and the link between forgotten connections. Here more than ever, painting meets sculpture, architecture and photography in the absolute sense of the word. Beneath the clash of styles, or the apparent dissonance of styles, all these works share the imprint of the era to which they belong and the ambition to express a truth about it. It is up to the Musée Orsay to bring them together harmoniously, restoring meaning and substance to all the correspondences that the collection allows."

Guy Cogeval, Director General, Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie.

Pavillon Amont Pavillon Amont

Arh. Dominique Brard

(Atelier de I'Île)

2.000 square meters

Starting from an empty industrial space, the project aims to create independent museum spaces, veritable museum halls. The aim was also to reintegrate the pavilion into the body of the museum and thus to create new routes for visitors. The project was designed with several elements: extension of the floor surface, new ways to circulate vertically, simple and legible, increased natural lighting, volumetry in favor of decorative artworks.

A strategic site of the Musée d'Orsay, the Upstream Pavilion fluidly links the nave to the 5th floor.

Impressionist Gallery

La Galerie des impressionnistes

Arh. Jean-Michel Wilmotte (Cabinet d'architectes Wilmotte & Associés)

1.238 square meters

The Impressionists' Gallery has been entirely renovated and features a scenography aimed at highlighting the museum's masterpieces. The benches in the gallery are by the Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka. The architectural plan aims at preserving the unique volumetric character of the gallery by establishing a balanced balance between natural and artificial light.

5th floor rooms

The redevelopment of the 5th floor halls, entrusted to the Wilmotte & Associés agency, covers an area of more than 2,000 square meters

The project includes the reorganization of the former Hall of Columns, the refurbishment of the Impressionist gallery, the adjoining booths dedicated to the graphic arts, and the renovation of the Françoise Cachin gallery, which includes the terrace of the Lille median level and the Symbolist gallery. The choice to leave the old structure, designed by arch. Laloux, is part of the architect. Jean-Michel Wilmotte's desire to skilfully combine present, past and future.

The lighting system has been revised in favor of an artificial one, modulated according to the natural light, combined with a filtered natural one in most of the spaces.

Neighboring cabinets

Les Cabinets mitoyens

Arh. Jean-Michel Wilmotte

(Cabinet d'architectes Wilmotte & Associés)

458 square meters

The adjoining cabinets are intended to house the graphic art collections and offer a discovery of the museum's collection of drawings and photographs.

Temporary exhibitions room

The Temporary Exhibition Room

Arh. Jean-Michel Wilmotte

(Architects Wilmotte & Associés)

365 square meters

This temporary exhibition hall (formerly the Hall of Columns) will present two or three exhibitions a year. The public will be able to enjoy a better reading of the works thanks to the fluid layout, adapted to the site and the collections appropriate to the architectural design.

The Clock Café

Le Café de l'Horloge

Humberto and Fernando Campana

305 square meters

With its hybrid and organic forms, the café has been revisited by Brazilian designers Humberto and Fernando Campana, whose work has already made its way into the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Key figuresSurfaces

Total areas renovated		7,200 square meters
of which:	Museum areas renovated	6,126 square meters
	Renovated circulation areas	1.074 square meters
Details of the renovated museum areas:
Upstream Pavilion		2,000 square meters
		additional space: 860 square meters
5th floor		2,061 square meters
of which:	Impressionist Gallery	1.238 square meters
	Hall of temporary exhibitions	365 square meters
		additional space: 120 square meters
North and south neighboring booths		458 square meters
		additional space: 110 square meters
Campana Café		305 square meters
		additional space: 100 square meters
Middle level and Lille terrace		1,760 square meters
of which:	1,200 sqm - terrace and 560 sqm - halls
Costs (in €)
Total renovation works		20.1 million
of which:	Upstream Pavilion	9.7 million
	5th floor (impresions, gallery, cabinet)	7.9 million
	Campana Café	1.6 million
	Middle level and Lille terrace	0.9 million

Funding (in €)
Musée Orsay - own funds		12.7 million (63%)
of which:	Traveling exhibitions	10.9 million
	State	6.6 million (33%)
	Other	2.6 million
Overall project funding (in €)
Upstream Pavilion
	Museum:	3.1 million (32%)
	State:	6.6 million (68%)
5th floor
	Museum:	7.9 million (100%)
Campana Café
	Museum:	0.8 million (50%)
	Elior:	0.8 million (50%)
Median level and Lille terrace
	Museum:	0.9 million (100%)
Total number of works on display		1,850 works
Total number of works rehoused as part of the redevelopment of the Nouvel Orsay		1,000 works (54%) (around 150 sculptures, 300 works of art, 400 paintings and more than 100 photographs and architectural drawings)