Next month will mark the 29th anniversary of the construction of the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. The building that caused a minor commotion when it was unveiled in 1977, is now hailed as one of the most daring art museums in the world. But what, if anything, has been the lasting contribution this building has made to culture and the arts, and what does it say of the role architecture has to play alongside the arts and politics?
The Center was conceived as ‘rescue remedy’ for the arts in Paris, and therefore throughout the Republic. The touted idea was simple, erect a building that would draw the masses to the arts making them both accessible to everyone, in accordance with the egalitarian ideals on which the nation had been founded since the Revolution.
