Jean-Luc Martinez has secured a second term at the head of the Louvre, on the proposal of the former minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen, in April 2018. POOL New/X80003
The paris museum has the world record of number of visitors. In 2018, these are 10.2 million people who are placed under the pyramid of Pei in order to admire the works of great artists such as da Vinci, Delacroix, or Antioch. But at what price? The influx of visitors sometimes prevents to contemplate serenely the paintings and sculptures, and sometimes requires hours of queuing. Then, how to promote the encounter of the public with the 35,000 works in the Louvre, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year ? Interviewed by the French Press Agency, Jean-Luc Martinez, president-director of musée du Louvre wishes to emphasize the booking system.
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At the beginning of the years 80, between 2.5 and 2.7 million visitors per year were welcomed at the Louvre. The Pyramid, with its facilities, toilets, changing rooms, had been designed for four million people. It is 10.2 million, or approximately 30,000 visitors per day. In 2024 (the year of the olympic Games), we could have millions of new visitors. The key to the future of the Louvre, so it is the booking. The step according to Jean-Luc Martinez, therefore, is to open up more spaces, more hours.
What steps do you take to deal with them?
For certain periods of time, the reservation will be mandatory. It will be for the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci in the fall. Because we must stop judging the success of an exhibition the number of hours of waiting outside! This is important to me is to promote the encounter with the works of Leonardo. That the visitor is not pressed against the walls. Book is a compulsion for a better, » says the boss of the Louvre. A ticket is purchased online or in advance. We guarantee entry to the half-hour. This smooth attendance. With night, one Saturday per month. Because, suburb, how to come to the Louvre in the middle of the week.
In this immense museum, upon the arrival in the pyramid, the visitor feels lost. How to make the visit pleasant and understandable?
For the past two years, we have worked on a signage directional visual, to help people to get to the heart of the collections, to guide. If you can push the walls, we undertook to furnish the Court Hector Lefuel, currently in the works, and the Garden of the Infanta. We would like to create moments and spaces of relaxation, including the summer.
What are the springs on the extraordinary success of the pyramid and the Louvre?
«The Pyramid makes transparent the scenes at the museum, saying the actor is you»
The sign of the pyramid, it is its transparency. We wanted to show the bowels of a museum. With this form associated with the world of egypt, was made the reconciliation between the ultra-contemporary and the ancient. The transparency changes of the past where the Louvre was a fortress. This is what the pyramid exploded.
The museum in the Eighteenth century had been designed for artists who need access to older models to regenerate their item and Then in the Nineteenth, put the collection in the center. In the Twentieth, it is the visitor who arrives at the center. It tells a story and the objects that are not included in the narrative are put in reserve. The pyramid makes it transparent behind-the-scenes of the museum, saying the actor is you. The revolution, it is the welcome center, the visitors deserving of a work of art as the input.
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The pyramid has established itself as one of the elements of the architectural language of the Louvre. The political power has played a particular role: this project was in part conceived, taught and imposed by a president of the Republic… The chinese public or brazilian comes to see today a palace of power with an architectural daring.