The 9 museums about to open that will reshape the world’s culture geography

 

While US and Europe are attacking Isis in Syria and Putin is still dealing with Ukraine’s invasion, the cultural geography of the world is slowly changing, of course not thanks to weapons, but to the 10 new main museums that between late 2014 and 2020 are going to open to the public. If it is to be read as a sign that the world’s crisis will soon become a memory is certainly hard to prove, nevertheless the big message that this new generation of museums is sending sounds like: let’s have hope in the future, it will be better than today. And it is indeed the kind of message that any military campaign, even the most inevitable, will never be able to convey to the people.

 

Unfortunately, or surprisingly, none of these new cultural institutions is placed in the so called MINT countries, or, for instance, in Mongolia, and it could be the evidence of the fact that this places are still far from the point of evolution from which a certain country can start to play its role in the international cultural playground, as China, for example, is brilliantly doing, thanks to the M+, the NAMOC in Beijing or other art centres in smaller cities, such as the Arts Centre of Qingdao City (CACQ) in Qingdao.

 

A new quickly growing generation of museums also means that a substantial development is going to affect this kind of institutions. All of them have been conceived and projected according to a specific cultural project, and in certain cases, such as the new Louvre Abu Dhabi or the Qatar’s National Museum, the planning of this project has been parallel to the government international policy, proving once again that the software, for a museum, is as important as its venue.

 

Moreover, if it’s true that the new buildings are still following the idea that more than 50 years ago has inspired the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the architects firms are not just worried to design iconic landmarks. They are also focused on the relation between the building and its surrounding – a fundamental point that, for example, Zaha Hadid has scarcely taken into consideration while projecting the MAXXI in Rome -. They are also paying more attention to the functionality of the museum’s interior design, according to the wide range of forms that art may assume, and consequently that may need to be efficaciously exhibited.

 

Some of these museums will be dedicated to contemporary art, such as the new Whitney in New York, or the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, but some of them are going to display traditional fine arts, such as the NAMOC in Beijing. This latter one is of particular interest, since in the last decades rarely museums dedicated to this fundamental side of art have been designed. In Europe, Russia, and most of the times also in the US, the old masters, medieval, Roman or Greek arts are traditionally connected to ancient buildings, seldom projected to welcome thousands of visitors per day, with sophisticated lighting devices or video projections. But what is it going to happen if the emerged countries will set a new standard? Probably we will discover that the old masters will not appear that old in a light, wide and perfectly illuminated contemporary room, as the Louvre lens proves.

 

Frank Gehry’s new Fondation Louis Vuitton, in Paris, will open on 27th October. Located in the Bois de Boulogne and commissioned by the chairman and C.E.O. Of LVMH Bernard Arnault, the 126,000-square-foot building will house the LVMH’s contemporary art collection.

 

Opening in December this year, the Musée des Confluences is dedicated to anthropology and scientific culture, according to the Lyon’s vocation. It is placed at the confluence between the Rhône and the Saône, in a new area rich of architectures. It has been designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Wolf D. Prix & Partner, and it is their first project in France.

 

The new Whitney Museum designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop will have an exhibition space of 60.000 square feet and is due to open in spring 2015 with an exhibition dedicated to the museum’s permanent collection including 19.000 pieces from 20th and 21th century American artists.

 

The new Fondazione Prada, a 21.783 mq space located in the south of Milan, will be disclosed in spring 2015, concurring with the opening of the Expo. Projected by architecture firm OMA, led by Rem Koolhas, the Museum has been designed to host Miuccia Prada’s and her husband collection of contemporary art, but will open with a show dedicated to Roman sculptures.

 

Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, opened in 2008 in Moscow, has been turned into a Museum and its new home will soon be ready. The building, a former restaurant in Gorky Park redesigned by Rem Koolhaas, is set to open in June 2015 and will feature a whopping 5,400 square meters (about 58,000 square feet) spread over two floors.

 

Louvre Abu Dhabi is going to be open to the public in 2015, and will host a selection of artworks from the Musée du Louvre in Louvre. It has been designed by French Architect Jean Nouvel, and it is under way on Saadiyat Island. It has been conceived as a “veritable living museum”, and placed directly over the water.

 

Qatar’s National Museum opening is scheduled for 2016 and  is expected to look like a desert rose that appears to grow out of the ground. Also this building has been designed French architect Jean Nouvel. It will include pieces from Qatar’s traditional art and jewellery.

 

The M+ in Hong Kong has been designed by Herzog & de Meuron, working with Hong Kong-based TFP Farrells and Ove Arup & Partners HK. Scheduled for completion in 2017, it will be an approximately 60,000 square meter exhibition space overlooking Victoria Harbour. It will be dedicated to 20th and 21st century art, design, architecture and the moving image.

 

Jean Nouvel is not only the designer of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and of the Qatar’s National Museum. French architect recently announced also the official design of the National Art Museum of China in Beijing (NAMOC). The Building is going to be the core of a new cultural district at the Olimpic Park. The museum will host collections of Chinese art dating from the Ming period.

September 29, 2014