Renovation and Off-Site programmning for the MAMAC museum

The MAMAC (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) is preparing to close its doors on 7 January 2024 for renovation work as part of the Promenade du Paillon season 2 project. Eventually, the museum will be at the heart of a 20-hectare green lung that will actively help to combat climate change and enhance the well-being of residents and visitors alike.

Like other major renovations of cultural institutions, such as the Centre Pompidou, which will close its doors in autumn 2024 for a period of 5 years, or the Pergamon Museum, the most visited museum in Berlin, which will close for 14 years, the work on the MAMAC will last 4 years. The museum will benefit from an in-depth renovation campaign to meet the challenges of a 21st century museum and strengthen its international reputation.

Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolitan Area, Deputy President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region:

“During this period of closure, I want the people of Nice to be able to continue to enjoy the wealth of the MAMAC’s collections. The closure of the museum to carry out essential renovation and embellishment work marks the start of a new era: a new way of discovering the MAMAC, with new works to be exhibited in other municipal museums and in the city. The MAMAC will be reaching out to the people of Nice, the Metropolitan area and beyond! Niki de Saint Phalle will be exhibited in the United States. I’d like to extend my warmest thanks to Hélène Guenin for this ambitious programme, which is accessible to all audiences and will continue to raise the museum’s profile“.

MAMAC in the South of France

The MAMAC will be offering a number of collaborative projects with museums in Nice, the metropolitan area and the South of France, enabling the public to rediscover the museum’s works in a different way, as well as previously undiscovered treasures…

In mid-June 2024, the Fernand Léger Museum in Biot will be the setting for the “Fernand Léger and the New Realisms” exhibition, co-produced by the Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais and the Musée national du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes, in partnership with the MAMAC. The exhibition will feature an extraordinary face-off between one of the masters of modernism and around sixty works from the MAMAC collection!

In mid-October 2024, the Musée Matisse will be hosting an unprecedented face-off between Henri Matisse and Yves Klein. Two of Nice’s most famous artistic names will finally come face to face in an exhibition in the heart of the Villa’s galleries. Alexander Calder’s majestic Stabile-Mobile (1970), a monumental abstract work in steel 8 metres high and over 7 metres across, has already taken up residence on the northern forecourt of the Villa des Arènes!

MAMAC on the move

The museum’s collection will also have an international impact. MAMAC has a very rich collection of works by major artists from the second half of the 20th century. The closure of the museum for works offers a unique opportunity to raise awareness of this collection and to forge partnerships with international museums.

At the end of April 2024, the MAMAC will present a major exhibition by Niki de Saint-Phalle at the prestigious Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri (United States). More than 80 works from the collection will be on loan for this exhibition, which will be the first major retrospective in the United States of the Franco-American artist.

Other major projects will be organised in 2024 and 2025 to showcase the MAMAC collection around the world.

MAMAC online

From February 2024, new sections will allow visitors to follow the activities of the MAMAC. An online service will gradually be rolled out on social networks, YouTube and the museum’s website, with “Tell me about a work”, “What artists say” and “Behind the scenes at MAMAC” sections to help you discover the museum and its collection in a different way.

This article is based on the press release issued by the City of Nice on 18 December 2023.