International News Digest

FEBRUARY 15

Le Corbusier’s ambitious Cité Radieuse, constructed in Marseille, France, from 1947 to 1952, has suffered extreme damage due to a fire that began in one of the building’s second-floor apartments. Five inhabitants were hospitalized, one of who is in critical condition. At least eight apartments and four hotel rooms were also destroyed by the flames. The building, also known as La Maison du Fada (The Madman’s House), is a twelve-story construction on concrete stilts, with over three hundred apartments, stores, a school, a gymnasium, and a public roof. Le Corbusier thought of the building as a “vertical village,” according to Le Monde. Conceived as a social-housing project that would offer luxury innovations like sound insulation and furnished kitchens, the Cité Radieuse will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary in October.

Marc-Olivier Wahler, the forty-eight-year-old former director of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, recently spoke with Emmanuelle Lequeux of Le Monde. After leaving the institution in the hands of Jean de Loisy, Wahler expressed regret about not being able to present an exhibition on the theme of reappearance, in which he would “be made to disappear [from his post] by a magician who would have changed me into a dog.” With just as much whimsy, Wahler mentioned a desire to develop a “poetic conscience” to combat the purportedly imminent end of the world. “A man who may have been my ancestor, Saul Wahl, who, according to legend, was the king of Poland for one day . . . predicted that we would survive this fateful year very well on the condition that we develop a true poetic conscience.” Returning to more concrete topics, Wahler spoke of undertaking a new project: a “former school building in the Saint-Germain neighborhood, comparable to MoMA PS1 in New York. While awaiting a work permit, the developer and collector who owns it—a member of the Tokyo Art Club—suggested that I do what I want with the building.” He intends to devote the building’s ground floor to exhibitions by well-known artists, to dedicate the second floor to work by emerging artists, and to establish a school on the third floor with art critic Christophe Kihm.

The forty-six-year-old Alain Seban, head of the Centre Pompidou, has almost finished his five-year term and will be asked to continue for another three years by the French cabinet of ministers, according to Libération. Given the success of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, which has been reporting record numbers of visitors, the choice to renew Seban’s contract is “obvious,” according to an official representing Sarkozy. Well-received exhibitions like “Dance Your Life,” which closes April 2, as well as additions to the museum’s collection—like the Guerlains’ recent gift of one thousand contemporary drawings, and a sharing of a “great American collection” with the Whitney Museum—further affirm the strength of this decision. Seban arrived at the Pompidou in 2007 a graduate of the École Polytechnique and erstwhile advisor to Jacques Chirac at the Elysée.

Slovenia’s new conservative prime minister (but longtime political player) Janez Janša has decided to do away with the country’s ministry of culture, moving its responsibilities instead to the ministry of education and sport. Janša claims that this will alleviate the country’s financial problems—Slovenia has been hit particularly hard by the euro crisis. Miha Jenko, a columnist for the Slovenian daily Delo does not seem to agree, reminding Slovenians that, “the country must abide by global principles in culture as well as finance.” Further, he suggests that cutbacks in the culture ministry simply won’t work. “As an author dealing with budget and other financial matters, I can only say that combining the cultural portfolio with other areas will not bring any financial savings to speak of.”