Discover Benelux | Museum of the Month | France
Photo: Hugo Maertens
MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE CAMBRAI
A grand re-opening with many previously unseen works TEXT: LORENZA BACINO | PHOTOS: MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE CAMBRAI
Two decades after first opening its doors to the public, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai has undergone a radical facelift. Each of the 12 rooms that make up the fine art section of the museum has been completely revamped, revitalised and relit. Visitors can enjoy over 200 works, many previously unseen, as well as experience a totally renovated and modernised interior.
rooms, wallpapers that reflect the century of the artworks displayed in each.
“My background in contemporary art taught me that a work of art is inextricably bound to the space and context in which it’s found,” explains Alice Cornier, director of the Musée de Cambrai for the past four years. “I used the geographical and architectural context to guide me during the designing phase for the new itinerary of the museum.”
Cornier says she wanted to give back a degree of domesticity to the museum. The space was previously a family home and was inhabited until the end of the 19th century. “The building is situated in what remains a residential area of Cambrai, so for the sake of coherence, I wanted to create the feeling that visitors are guests entering a person’s house and admiring their artworks. I think of the people in the portraits as the inhabitants of the house.”
Cornier invited contemporary artists to design new wallpapers for three of the 62 | Issue 58 | October 2018
The paintings are hung in what may appear to be a rather haphazard way. “We’ve played with how the pictures are displayed. There are intentional imperfections,” says Cornier. Some pictures are hung as low as 30 centimetres from the ground. “So you won’t need to raise your gaze too high to view them.”
Most of the previously unseen works are from the 20th century, in particular the interwar period. Here, visitors will notice a strong emphasis on the female form with one room dedicated to images of women from the ‘20s and ‘30s doing a variety of activities. In fact, ‘the body’ is a central theme running throughout the museum, with more than 90 per cent of images representing a person. The atmosphere in each of the spaces is very different and Cornier hopes visitors will reinterpret what they see and experience in the rooms in a more intimate and cosy way. The ambitious renovations at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai do not detract from its intimacy. Ambiance and art are fused together here in a symbiotic relationship of equal importance where viewer and artworks create a unique and personal rapport.