Palais de Tokyo located in Paris has announced its new President. This will be the first time that Paris’ Institution will have a female President. The institution has named Emma Lavigne as its leader moving forward.
It is known that Emma Lavigne is also the director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz currently. This will be the fourth time that a new President has been appointed by Palais de Tokyo and it will be the first instance where a female leader will be heading the institution.
Until January of this year, Jean de Loisy was the President of Palais de Tokyo who was appointed in 2012. Prior to that, Marc Olivier-Wahler was the President who followed the founding duo of this institution named Nicolas Bourriaud and Jérôme Sans.
However, it has to be said that the selection of Emma Lavigne to the role of President for this institution has come as a surprise as well as it is unusual in the French cultural sphere. Because all the French historical institutions such as Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Contemporain Lyon, and Montpellier Contemporary have been headed by men only.
Jean de Loisy had already announced that he would depart the Palais de Tokyo to lead the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Since then, the institution has been looking for the right person to be appointed to this role.
However, Jean de Loisy’s appointment has also met with controversy. 60 Art Professionals signed an open letter saying that de Loisy is too “conservative” to oversee the academy. Also, they have argued that his age and politics should have excluded him from this role.
Before being appointed as the President of Palais de Tokyo, Emma Lavigne has been the curator of the prior Biennale de Lyon, in 2017. Also, she has been the director of France’s prestigious Centre Pompidou-Metz since 2015.
