The Center Pompidou-Metz creates the program for an experimental school with Maurizio Cattelan

For the moment, it has neither roof nor walls. But within two years, the brand new école created by the Center Pompidou-Metz will be housed in an annex designed by the museum’s two architects, Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines. In the meantime, it still exists: 34 students from its first class meet one Wednesday a month in the museum premises.

In front of them, teachers invited by the superstar artist Maurizio Cattelanwhich sponsors this first promotion (and will be featured in a major exhibition in 2025 to mark the museum’s 15th anniversary). Throughout the year, students can talk about biology with the landscaper Gilles Clementrhetoric with the visual artist Ulla of Brandenburgpoetry with the singer Jeanne Addedof contemplation with a Shaolin hillMaster Shi Heng…

Points for the certificate

Each year, the artist-rector, the guest professors and the program will change completely. The only constant is that the students admitted must be enrolled in class 3^e in different colleges in the Metz Eurometropolis. Informed by their establishments, they apply via video in which they put themselves on stage to tell their story. Once selected (this year, all the candidates were!), they accumulate points here which count for the national diploma of the brevet as an extracurricular activity.

The initial idea of ​​this unique school is inspired by the reflections of Boris Charmatz : known for his dance shows which flourish outside of the simple stage space, the French choreographer has developed a reflection around the decompartmentalization of learning In I am a school (ed. Les Prairies Ordinaires, 2009).

An increasingly young audience

In its wake, the Center Pompidou-Metz team imagined opening its doors to a atypical schoolOr artists and other extraordinary personalities transmit their knowledge, as much as their experiences, their sensitivity, their particular approach to the world and its contemporary issues.

The museum thus confirms its interest in pedagogyafter its beautiful exhibition “The Art of Learning. A school of creators » in 2022 – which had already hosted an experimental classroom. It also marks its joy at welcoming “an increasingly young audience,” its director Chiara Parisi tells us. More than teaching, it is therefore the museum institution which breaks down barriers in this project, and which extends its influence on youth of an entire territory.