Pompidou Centre
Open since 1977, the Pompidou Center, a multicolor 'boat of metal and glass', is the icing on the top of Paris' core, between the Halles and Marais districts. According to Renzo Piano, the architect, “Pompidou is a parody of a building, and a parody of technology itself”. Daring -with sheathing, pipes and elevators visible from the exterior- its architecture is generally classified as Post-modern and it was one of the most controversial, and popular, of the past century. An audacious creation that shows the dream of an era: that of the worldwide culture. This innovative center is arranged in seven stages and 100 000 m2. It hosts a museum, a library and spots for audiovisual and plastic arts.
The national museum of modern art exhibits masterworks like those of Picasso, Kandinsky, Matisse, Chagall, Léger, Miró, Dalí, Dubufett or Klein and many others from the contemporary panorama (Buren, Boltanski, Hantaï...). The terrace offers an exceptional 360º view of the City of Lights and its most famous monuments: Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré Coeur... The Pompidou Center is a meeting for streets artists, in its adjacent square with pond and fountains made by Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle, near the IRCAM (the 'Institute for Research and Acoustic/Music Coordination), as well as the studio of the sculptor Brancusi. Overall, a boiling and mixing pot that turns the Pompidou center into an irreplaceable multi-disciplinary scenery.
Since the Pompidou Center is located near the Marais district, you may visit it with the Pariscityvision.com trip called 'A walking tour of The Marais area : a village in Paris'.