![]() ![]() Today the steep streets are quickly turning into a Boho stronghold, and commercial and nonprofit galleries have mushroomed, sometimes creating uneasy juxtapositions. In the 19th century, the Croix-Rousse was mainly occupied by the canuts, Lyon’s silk weavers, its high-ceilinged buildings designed to accommodate their huge looms. A world heritage site, like the rest of the city’s historical center, the Croix-Rousse used to be Lyon’s colline qui travaille (hill that works), in opposition to Fourvière, which, topped by a monumental basilica, was the colline qui prie (hill that prays). The rue Burdeau spearheads the politically backed transformation of the Croix-Rousse slope, a neighborhood that, until a few years ago, was plagued with social problems. ![]() “Here artists can experiment and try out new exhibition formats,” said Caroline Soyez-Petithomme, the volunteer artistic director of the organization together with Jill Gasparina. La Salle de Bains, though small and in chronic economic peril, is a landmark of the city’s art scene. But most of the younger artists, including the promising duo Lamarche-Ovize and Bettina Samson, tend to leave. Lyon also has its reputed École des Beaux-Arts and living in Lyon hasn’t prevented artists like Alain Bublex and Marc Desgrandchamps from pursuing international careers. Other major landmarks include the Institut d’art contemporain in Villeurbanne, an eastern suburb, and the contemporary arts center Le Magasin in Grenoble, about 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, southeast of Lyon, and the Musée d’Art Moderne in St-Étienne, about 60 kilometers southwest, both founded in the late 1980s. Installed at the foot of the high-rises in the suburban town of Décines-Charpieu, the temporary structure will display works selected from the collection of the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon by a group of inhabitants who also will be responsible for all the other aspects of the show, including the visits and the security.Īttached since its inception to the contemporary art museum, the biennial is the most visible part of a healthy museum scene in the region, but it is not alone. One of its initiatives, Cube Blanc, is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the modernist ideal of the white cube exhibition space. Now Résonance and Veduta are crucial components of the biennial.”įirst held in 2007, the Veduta program presents contemporary art outside of its usual framework and to a population not necessarily familiar with it. Raspail said, “I was told: If you don’t work with the local scene, forget it. More than 90 of these are officially associated with it through its “Résonance” program, a marketing strategy that, since 2003, uses the biennial’s visibility to promote ambitious programming in the region. Somewhat contentiously, the line from Yeats appears stripped from its political content - the evocation of the Easter Rising, an Irish upheaval against British rule - and is used to epitomize the idea that oppositions can be creative.Īlthough the biennial’s main exhibition doesn’t feature any Lyon-based artists, it both fosters and is enriched by artistic initiatives in the area. It’s a conventional city, but it’s wealthy, and it doesn’t scorn culture.” Lyon has a very important cultural tradition. “Not everything is born out of the biennial,” he said a few weeks ago during a conversation in the Place des Terreaux, designed by Daniel Buren, at the heart of the manicured city center. 31, has grown to be a critically acclaimed and popular powerhouse - the last edition saw 165,000 visitors in three months - is largely due to the determination of Thierry Raspail, its founding artistic director and the first director of the city’s contemporary art museum. That the Lyon biennial, which runs through Dec. “Everybody is making an effort with their exhibition program,” said Anne Giffon-Selle, president of the Adele network, which encompasses 32 contemporary art venues in the Rhône-Alpes region. In the run-up to the biennial, art organizations in the region strove to ensure everything was pitch perfect. ![]() On Thursday, the international art world descended en masse to celebrate the opening of the city’s 11th biennial, titled “Une Terrible Beauté est Née” (A Terrible Beauty Is Born), after W.B Yeats’s 1916 poem “Easter.” The city’s growth as an art draw is largely thanks to its dynamic contemporary art museum - since 1984 it has organized more than 100 exhibitions by artists like James Turrell, Georg Baselitz and John Baldessari - and its contemporary art biennial, founded in 1991. Nestled on the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône rivers, Lyon is chiefly known for gastronomy and silk, but over the past couple of decades it has emerged as a prime destination for contemporary art. ![]()
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