“The Grand Palais was designed as a party palace”

On Saturday evening, the wheelchair fencing final closed the Olympic interlude at the Grand Palais. No respite for the brave, the next day it was time to dismantle everything… and make way for the Chanel teams, in the starting blocks to set up the decor for the next fashion show. The house on rue Cambon will return to the majesty of the nave in October, as part of Paris Fashion Week. It was in the emptiness of this masterpiece of glass and steel that Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard presented 63 spectacular collections from 2005 to 2020.

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At the forefront of understanding the urgency of renovation and upgrading, the brand gave another dimension to this collaboration by announcing in 2018 a contribution of 25 million euros, the largest sponsorship ever made in favor of a public institution (excluding Notre-Dame). Today, Chanel is continuing its effort by providing an additional 30 million euros to support the programming. What are the terms of this partnership? What does Chanel expect from this sponsorship? Parades, exhibitions, fashion and for the first time in the history of the Grand Palais, free admission… Joint interview between Didier Fusillier, its president, and Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel’s fashion activities.

LE FIGARO. – Despite a colossal construction site, you managed to open your doors to the Olympic events. Did the images that circulated around the world give a new dimension to the Grand Palais?
DIDIER FUSILLIER. – Absolutely. The Grand Palais was a central monument of the capital; with this Olympic summer, it has become an icon. The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times even put us on their front page to illustrate the power of the Games in Paris. We rediscovered the place with the fencing events in this renovated nave, but also thanks to the images of cycling and triathlon which allowed us to appreciate the monument in its entirety from the outside. Unlike the Eiffel Tower, for example, this architecture is relatively low, since it has only one floor – admittedly, a floor of 43 meters. However, the images filmed by drone showed its monumental size, because I remind you that you can fit the Palace of Versailles inside! Its surface area is even 5,000 square meters larger… But it is even more magical to see the Grand Palais in real life, this “new” 124-year-old building, built for the 1900 World’s Fair. Everything has been repainted, the glass roofs have been renovated, the pipes and electricity completely redone, 7,000 square meters of floor mosaics have been restored… Today we have 43 elevators, not all of them finished yet, compared to two previously. We are in something extraordinary: it is the largest monument renovation project ever carried out in Paris.

The first event of this new season is the Chanel ready-to-wear fashion show on October 1st. How did the house’s history begin at the Grand Palais?
BRUNO PAVLOVSKY. – We have been parading under the glass roof of the nave since 2005. Here, we have launched a rocket, erected an Eiffel Tower, reproduced the Verdon Gorges, set up a supermarket… I fondly remember the Paris-Bombay collection in 2011, in the curved gallery still under construction where we had set up an incredible banquet. Karl Lagerfeld was passionate about its architecture. He was also inspired, for the scenography of our shows, by the photographs that André Granet had taken during major events between 1909 and 1948, the exhibitions at the beginning of the century, the car shows, etc.
D. F. – We even had hot air balloons in 1909, airplanes in 1912! The images of these events are insane. This creativity and this never flashy elegance are values ​​dear to the Grand Palais and echo the house of Chanel. Just like our common attachment to know-how, like this chiseled architecture – did you know that Cézanne and Matisse participated as young workers in its construction? – and that of Chanel’s artistic crafts which keep tradition alive through creation.
B. P. – This unique place is the only one that is so central and easy to access, and can accommodate the public and monumental sets. For Chanel, the Grand Palais must exist and exist for a long time. However, during all these years of fashion shows, we have witnessed long discussions about authorizations and security issues. Beyond questions of comfort, insulation and elevators, this building was not designed according to current standards. In our interests, we had to support this project, which we did to the tune of 25 million euros. Today, we are continuing this partnership by giving 30 million euros that will be paid over five years and are intended to support the artistic and cultural programming. This cultural dimension is just as important to us. I don’t need to tell you that most of our competitors have their own foundations. We have no art collections to promote, no interest in acting on the art market, but Chanel has always been and will remain a patron of culture, so that Paris can shine. All our investments are linked to creation, this is obviously the case in our collections but also in the partnership that we have established with the Palais Galliera-Musée de la mode de la ville de Paris and the Opéra Garnier.

You are known for being relatively unintrusive in your patronage activities, for example avoiding advertising banners on the construction sites you support. How do you intervene in the life of the Grand Palais? ?
B. P. – A house like ours must make people dream and want to go there, we are convinced that there is no point in slapping our name on advertising banners. We prefer to support projects like JR’s at the Opera last June thanks to our patronage of this institution. We obviously seek through these patronages to enhance the image of the house, but always with respect for creation. What is enacted by our partnership with the Grand Palais is our privileged access for our four annual fashion shows to the nave or in the summer, when it will be occupied by shows or exhibitions, to the adjacent galleries, which can be just as interesting. We have this exclusivity compared to other big houses, but it is possible and even desirable that fashion exists there in all its forms, particularly through young creation. On the other hand, as far as programming is concerned, I would be quite incapable of doing the work of Didier and his teams! Obviously, if one day an artist is scheduled that we particularly like, we will not forbid ourselves from working together. In short, Didier has no obligation of visibility towards Chanel and Chanel has no prerogative on the events that will take place here.

Precisely, Didier Fusillier, what can you already tell us about this programming? You who worked for eight years at La Villette, are you going to take up the cultural approach?
D. F. – It is not a question of replicating what I have already done, it is neither the same place nor the same audience. To use Jean Nouvel’s excellent formula: “it all depends on the context “. The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, which is its real name, was designed as a palace of celebrations. For me, who comes from the North, I deeply believe in this virtue of celebration. If you have little money and you are a family with children, you may be embarrassed to go to an exhibition or the theater, but never to go to a party. I like the idea of ​​a parade, brought up to date by the Olympic Games. It can be declined from the most exclusive – like a Chanel fashion show – to the most popular, like the one we are thinking of in the context of the year of Brazil, next summer. More broadly, Chanel’s patronage allows us, for the first time in the history of the Grand Palais, to open more than 4,000 square meters to the public free of charge, that is to say what is between the nave and the Palais de la Découverte. It will also allow us to offer artists the opportunity to perform in this extraordinary space. These will be names that are perhaps less well-known than those of the major exhibitions that can be seen elsewhere in Paris, such as the Japanese Chiharu Shiota (from December 11, 2024 to March 19, 2025), and for the theater, Mohamed El Khatib, who triumphed this summer at the Avignon Festival.

So you are giving up on major exhibitions like the Picasso exhibition that celebrated the reopening of the Grand Palais in 1966 or, after the restoration of the nave in 2005, the Monumenta series that left such an impression…
D. F. – Which unfortunately also had an impact on finances. That said, we don’t rule out very well-known artists. During the renovations at the Centre Pompidou, two of our galleries will host four exhibitions per year drawn from its holdings, including Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely in June, and Matisse in 2026. After the Chanel show, we will host Art Basel and the Francophonie summit in October; Paris Photo in November; the huge ice rink under the glass roof in December… I always say that the strength of the Grand Palais is its emptiness. Inside, you can offer anything, like in a shaker! Fashion shows, unexpected exhibitions, events open to the street… Eclecticism, this great artistic and popular movement, is part of our history.