The facade of the Palais Garnier in Paris, under scaffolding for work for several months, is covered with an ephemeral installation by the artist JR representing a cave, noted an AFP photographer. This installation covers the facade of this historic monument, which is also one of the two stages of the Paris Opera with the Opéra Bastille.
“Revealing the entrance to an immense cavern opening onto a perspective of rock and light”, this work is a “visual evocation of the origins of ballet and opera, when song and dance celebrated the divinities of Archaic Greece in caves created for festivities,” the institution states in a press release.
The Opera has also announced the projection of excerpts from lyrical and choreographic works on this facade, visible from the square, for four evenings (9, 10, 16 and 17 September). A second installation, a stage curtain, is planned for November. The restoration work on the facade is planned until the end of 2024. In addition to the cleaning, pollution and lead removal work, the work relates, among other things, to the restoration of the gilding, sculpted elements and sculptures as well as the gilding of the grilles. peristyle, lettering, busts and capitals. An anti-pigeon protection system will also be installed.
Built by the architect Charles Garnier, the palace was inaugurated in 1875 and classified as a historic monument in 1923; numerous repair and compliance works have been carried out there since. The cost of the work will be “financed by the advertising display on the tarpaulin of the facade”, specifies the Opera, which is subsidized up to 95.3 million euros per year, according to figures from 2019. The palace will remain open throughout the work which will begin in April.
