Grand Palais rises from the ashes ‘to rival Eiffel Tower'
When the Grand Palais was built for the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition, it had the second most spectacular glass roof in the world, according to Didier Fusillier, its current chairman.
According to him, the most spectacular was in London's Crystal Palace, which had been built 49 years earlier for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park before being moved to the southeast of the capital.
Yet the Crystal Palace burnt down in 1936, its name living on through the local football club and leaving Paris's Grand Palais as a uniquely spectacular edifice with nothing to match it.
For decades, the French did not pay much attention to the Grand Palais, which was eclipsed by another Parisian monument built for a Universal Exhibition — Gustave Eiffel's 1889 structure. 'That's because the Grand Palais is horizontal and the Eiffel Tower is vertical and you can see it from further away,' said Fusillier, 66, by way of explanation.
Now he believes visions are about to change. The Grand Palais has undergone a €466 million renovation that promoters believe will turn it into an attraction to rival the Eiffel Tower.
Fusillier says visitors 'will not get over it' when they see the 35m-high glass roof over an edifice that is the size of ten football pitches and open for free to the public for the first time in its history.
Officials have high hopes for the project. They say it will help to regenerate the once illustrious but now much denigrated surrounding neighbourhood and notably the Champs Élysées, an avenue that most Parisians view as unappealing.
A further aim is to provide a counterpoint to the prevailing mood of miserabilism in France with 'fun' exhibitions in the Grand Palais. Fusillier said he wanted to renew the festive spirit that coursed through Paris in the early 1900s. 'People should feel happy to enter the Grand Palais, especially because since the fire at the Crystal Palace, it has been the only space of its kind.'
Works began in 2021 when the monument was closed for a four-year renovation phase. It partially reopened in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, staging fencing and other events. On Friday, the step-by-step reopening continued as visitors were given access to all its myriad galleries and exhibition spaces.
Entrance to the main hall under the 17,500 sq m glass roof is free, as are some of the exhibitions, like Nosso Barco Tambor Terra, an immersive work made of materials such as cotton, bark and spices by Ernesto Neto, the Brazilian artist.
• Where to see the finest art deco design
Other exhibitions — and there are eight in all at the moment — are ticketed, with prices ranging between €8 and €17.
At 72,000 sq m, the edifice is bigger than both the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles, and less daunting too. Last week, for instance, an old green Renault 12 parked outside to promote a performance by Mohamed El Khatib, the Franco-Moroccan artist, who had filled an exhibition hall with beaten-up vehicles like those once used by north African immigrants to France returning to their countries of origin in the summer.
In an adjacent hall is a display of balloon art, while another gallery is hosting a major exhibition of works by Niki de Saint Phalle, the late French-American artist, and Jean Tinguely, her sculptor husband. There is also an exhibition of art brut and a separate one of contemporary Danish tapestries.
Fusillier said the hallmark of the Grand Palais was its 'eclecticism — it is that everything is possible here and that everything is possible at the same time'.
Asked whether he risked disorientating visitors with too many different offerings that could leave the Grand Palais without a discernible identity, he said: 'The identity is the building.'
He said it was like that when the Grand Palais opened. During the 1900 Universal Exhibition — which drew 50 million visitors including Claude Monet and Nicholas II, the Russian emperor — the world's first moving walkway was put on display. It was named the Rue de l'Avenir — the 'Road of the Future'. In following years, the Grand Palais staged car shows, a hot air balloon festival, boxing, show jumping, fashion shows and in the 1920s, it hosted a banquet for 15,000 farmers.
But during the 20th century parts of the building were hived off and used as government offices, and the building fell into decline. By the 1990s, it was in such a state of disrepair that officials debated demolishing it after a metal rivet fell from the roof on to a design exhibition. The incident prompted a structural survey that discovered that the building was leaning dangerously.
Only a last-minute government intervention spared the building, which officials now hope will assume its place alongside the Eiffel Tower as an unmissable Parisian attraction.
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