Center Pompidou x Jersey City: the Beaubourg utopia in America

Born from the collaboration between Jersey City and the Center Pompidou, a new cultural venue will open these doors in 2024 in the United States. To better understand the approach at work, Toutelaculture had the opportunity to interview Matthieu Potte-Bonneville, director of cultural development at Centre Pompidou.

Who said a museum only has four walls? Today, the Center Pompidou continues to defy the laws of physics by going beyond the horizon of the Beaubourg plateau. Present in Metz, Malaga, Shanghai and Brussels at the same time, the famous Parisian institution is multiplying all over the world.

In 2024, the journey will continue in Jersey City, a suburb of New York. Indeed, the city council and the museum jointly announced the opening of the “Center Pompidou x Jersey City”. However, as the name shows, this is not a new antenna but a collaboration. The Center Pompidou lends its name, certain works from its collection and its museum expertise. And in exchange, the municipality gives an annual remuneration but also supports the costs of renovation and operation of the building.

More than a museum, a model

When it opened in 1977, the Center Pompidou made a sensational entry into the Parisian landscape. But today, there is no need to make an original architectural proposal to impose itself in the eyes of the public. Building on its reputation, the new Center will take place in the Pathside Building, a former tram station from the beginning of the 20th century. The choice of such a place is not trivial. For Matthieu Potte-Bonneville, director of cultural development at the Center Pompidou, this is not about “imposing a French model” on the United States. We need to talk more about “tailor-made work” in order to adapt to the particularities of the local environment.

But Jersey City is, like many New York suburbs, a city in the process of gentrification. After the Goldman Sachs Tower, will the Center Pompidou x Jersey City become the symbol of this transformation of the city, which was initially popular?

Adapt rather than impose yourself

Matthieu Potte-Bonneville nuances: “Jersey City is in a rather special position. It is at the same time a city which is in the process of conquering its status as a new district of New York but at the same time which is due to its specific identity. [avec une forte communauté afro-descente et asiatique] “. Thus, he affirms: “that it is not a question of an annex of the New York scene, which is already bloated, but of defining a proposal for the city”.

The future museum intends to rely on local and emerging artists. Like Shantell Martin, an artist from the city who is delighted in advance on Twitter about the rehabilitation of the building.