Concerned workers at the Centre Pompidou staged a strike on Monday, October 16, forcing the Parisian contemporary and modern art museum to close for the day. The strike comes in advance of massive renovations and expansions, which will close the cultural institution for five years beginning in 2025.
“After numerous meetings, the Ministry of Culture and the leadership of the Centre Pompidou are unable to tell us when, how, and where the workers, the museum’s collections, and all the activities that give the Center its identity will go,” the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) stated in a news release posted to the social media platform X, pointing to how the alleged “lack of direction” has forced workers concerned about their unknown futures at the museum to strike.
On X, the cultural institution announced its one-day closure “due to a social movement” in a statement. Apologizing for any inconvenience, the museum assured visitors who had already reserved tickets for that day would remain valid for one month. The museum reopened today, October 18, resuming normal hours.
Demanding job security during this period, workers represented by a coalition of major French trade unions including the CGT, French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (UNSA), Workers’ Force (FO), and Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) have been demanding written commitments from the Centre Pompidou that will ensure the existence of their positions at the museum, according to Le Monde. After hosting another meeting yesterday between union leaders, the culture ministry, and museum management, another discussion is set to take place tomorrow.
“Around 1,000 people working in security, communications, conservation, publishing, film, or administrative and technical services are impacted by this closure, and are demanding that their jobs and mission be safeguarded,” a spokesperson for the National Union of Museums and Estates, which operates under the CGT, told Le Monde.
According to its renovation plans, which include asbestos removal and enhanced fire safety mechanisms and accessibility infrastructure as well as improved energy efficiency, the museum will gradually begin to close visitor spaces next fall before closing entirely in the summer of 2025.
During the five-year closure, the Centre Pompidou will partner with other Parisian cultural institutions such as the Louvre and the Conciergerie on several art projects. While its affiliated Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) located next door will remain open at its current site, the museum’s Public information library (BPI) will move to the Le Lumière office building on Avenue des Terroirs de France in the city’s Bercy neighborhood.
Agence France-Presse reported that the strike’s closure of the museum delayed the press preview of a major Pablo Picasso retrospective to open this year in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death. The strike also forced the relocation of the ceremony for the 2023 Marcel Duchamp Prize, an award given to artists working in France that is presented in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, according to daily newspaper Le Figaro. In its 23rd edition, the award was given to Palestinian-Swedish visual artist Tarik Kiswanson in a ceremony at the Hôtel Marcel Dassault instead, the headquarters for French auction house Artcurial.
Hyperallergic has requested comment on the strike from the Centre Pompidou, the collective of trade unions, and France’s Ministry of Culture.
