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The innovation extends to its organization. Bourriaud and Sans have set up a private association that will run the new art center for its first three years. "You could say we're the franchise holders," Bourriaud grins. The state provides them with the premises plus an annual subsidy of between $1 million and $1.3 million a year. "That won't cover all our needs," says Sans. "We'll have to top it up with private patronage and corporate sponsorship."
With private arts funding still often viewed as a dangerous American heresy, the new center's business model is a sign of changing times. That suits Bourriaud and Sans, who like to see their mission as shaking up a backward-looking French art establishment. "Paris has fallen behind on all fronts," says Bourriaud, "but over the past couple of years something's started to change. There's a new generation with open minds and an international outlook. They don't just think France is the best country in the world and there's no need to look at what's happening elsewhere."
Paris also has the Centre Pompidou, of course. But ever since the Centre reopened in January after a two-year refit, the vocation of its National Museum of Modern Art has been looking vague. While its modern floor — spanning 1900 to 1960 — has won unanimous praise, the contemporary floor is an amorphous mishmash. With concerts of post-rave electronic music and an exhibition organized by the trendy magazine Purple, the Centre has looked uneasy in its attempts to keep up with the zeitgeist. "This new center has come into being because of questions being asked about the Centre Pompidou," says Christophe Durand-Ruel, contemporary art specialist at Christie's in Paris. "If the Pompidou wants to concentrate on 20th century art, it shouldn't be presenting very recent creations."
"The Centre Pompidou is a cruise liner and we're a yacht," says Sans. The Palais de Tokyo will be geared around fast reaction times, with programming changing monthly. The space alongside a bookshop, concept store, auditorium and café will be kept as open as possible, with different areas being used for different activities from month to month. To dovetail with the public's free time, opening hours will be a hip midday to midnight. And the curation will be resolutely multidisciplinary. "We want to fit in with the concerns of today's artists, who are looking beyond art to cinema, fashion, music and so on," says Bourriaud. "We aren't going to be limited to any one idea of art."
The pair hasn't yet announced any specific exhibitions for the Palais de Tokyo, but they won't include surefire crowd pleasers like the major Pop Art and Dubuffet retrospectives that the Pompidou has scheduled for 2001. With the new center reliant on private money, that could cause problems. "Private donations aren't tax deductible in France, so private capital comes exclusively from sponsorship," says Durand-Ruel. "And it's a lot riskier for a company to sponsor a young artist than a Picasso exhibit. It's not going to be easy."
Perhaps not. But all those hoping that the 21st century will leave a more lasting impact on Paris' cultural landscape than the 20th century did will be rooting for Sans and Bourriaud to succeed.
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