Christine Macel takes over as head of decorative arts museums in Paris

In recent times, cultural appointments, deemed highly political by Emmanuel Macron, have been able to wait for long weeks for the Elysian imprimatur. At the Decorative Arts, an association under the law of 1901 recognized as being of public utility, bringing together two museums and two schools, in Paris, there will be no long interim, as at the Louvre, nor vacation, as at the Palais de Tokyo, nor extension, as at Versailles.

Less than a week after the departure of the previous director, Olivier Gabet, recruited by the decorative arts department of the Louvre, we know the name of his successor: Christine Macel. A sacred prize for the chairman of the board of directors of the establishment, Johannes Huth, and for the general manager, Sylvie Corréard: at 53, this key figure of the Center Pompidou enjoys a rare international aura in the French museums. An original choice too, because, a researcher of contemporary art, the general curator of heritage was not expected in the field of design and applied arts.

Passionate intellectual, known for her acumen and outspokenness, she likes to leave paths that are too marked

From her architect father, Christine Macel retained a sense of space and scenography. From her historian mother, she learned to reflect on the present without ignoring the past. Passionate intellectual, known for her acumen and outspokenness, she likes to leave paths that are too marked out.

Her career began at the Ministry of Culture in 1995 as an artistic creation inspector. In 2000, the art historian joined the National Museum of Modern Art, where she founded and directed the contemporary and prospective creation department. We owe him some of the most erudite, sensitive and enjoyable exhibitions at the Center Pompidou. Thus “Promises of the past”, in 2010, where, with the Polish curator Joanna Mytkowska, she exhumes a forgotten Slav avant-garde, which has developed quietly on the other side of the iron curtain. In 2021, Christine Macel had signed the exhibition-manifesto “They make abstraction”to give a hundred women, excluded from official accounts, their active role in the history of art.

Multidisciplinary spirit

Twenty years of co-productions with leading institutions, such as the MoMA in New York or the Tate Modern in London, have earned him the respect of his peers abroad. But it was above all the Venice Biennale that gave it an international dimension. Already in 2007, she was curator of the Belgian pavilion, signed by the acrobat of words Eric Duyckaerts (1953-2019). Six years later, she accompanies Albanian-born videographer Anri Salawhich represents the colors of France.

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