August 21, 2017 |
“I have always said that memories should be transformed into projects”, said Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s life-long partner, “and that is what we have done with this Fondation. 2017 marks a new chapter with the opening of two Yves Saint Laurent museums in Paris and Marrakech. And so the adventure we began so long ago, when we didn’t know what fate would have in store for us, continues.” And an exciting adventure it continues be, with the announcement of the opening of two museums on two different continents.
As well as sharing a roof with the HQ of Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, the new Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris will extend the artistic lifespan of Hôtel Particulier – once the creative nexus of Monsieur Saint Laurent, in which he spent the best part of thirty years designing and creating his collections – now transformed into a space where attendees can look into Saint Laurent’s era-defining creative process. It couldn’t be more fitting.
Although the space will also house contemporary thematic displays, the inaugural retrospective exhibition will feature around fifty of Saint Laurent’s drawings, designs, accessories and films, whilst also providing public insight into the clandestine world of a haute couture house. Set designer Nathalie Crinière and Jacques Grange, longtime collaborators with the Fondation, have been tasked with creating the exhibitions interior and recreating the original feel and dynamic of the space.
Cut to the blazing heat and sprawling city of Marrakech, Saint Laurent’s surrogate home and the setting for his second museum, situated in Jardin Majorelle, the site Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé saved from corporate destruction back in 1966. This cobalt-coloured idyll will be home to a vast terra cotta structure that will include a library, a concert hall, and an exhibition space. Designed by Parisian architects Studio Ko, the firm behind Balmain’s sparkly new Paris flagship, the space will house over 5,000 haute couture garments, 15,000 accessories as well as thousands of drawings and original sketches. Who can lend us airfare?
The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is scheduled to open on the 3rd October 2017 and on the 19th of October in Morocco
