Art commission

In 1972, President Pompidou commissioned the famous designer Pierre Paulin to create several futuristic rooms in the private section of the Elysée Palace. The Salon Paulin is one of the highlights.

The impulse was given: little by little, artists settled in, in the vestibule, in the salons and in the gardens. Painting, sculpture, design: contemporary art now has its rightful place in the Palais, contributing to our country's cultural influence.

Dédale 

Designed and created by artist Justin Weiler, this monumental piece was installed in February 2023 during restoration work on the historic library. It consists of 14 panels, each 3 metres high and 1 metre wide, set in two rows. Its glass panels were manufactured near Rennes. The artist's work was executed using a spray gun, the color then being imprisoned in the laminated glass. Through the parts left in reserve and the play of superimposed plates, this installation reflects on space and depth as they are shaped by the immateriality of light. The title Dédale refers to the mythological character who invented the labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur.
 

Odyssée 

Commissioned by the Mobilier National, this majestic carpet imagined by artist Nathalie Junod-Ponsard now adorns the Murat staircase, leading to the President's office. “In this specific work, the Murat staircase becomes the subject of a journey, a movement during which the ascent or descent is accompanied by a particular energy produced visually by passages between chosen chromatics”.

Nathalie Junod-Ponsard creates luminous installations and works that transform spaces and tend to destabilize our usual points of reference.
 

Pavoisé 

“In situ” work by artist Daniel Buren, installed on the glass roof of the Jardin d'Hiver and laid with the complicity of designer Ora-ïto. The 250 square meters of the glass roof were covered with blue, white and red filters, illuminating and transforming the place with the colors of the Republic as the day progresses and the sun moves over it. Some of the panels also feature the artist's distinctive stripe pattern.

The work is also a tribute to a great French artist: Claude Monet, who painted La Rue Montorgueil (1878, Musée d'Orsay) decked out with tricolor flags, just as the Republic was being consolidated.
    

Fleuves de France 

Designed for the Cour d'Honneur of the Élysée Palace, the work consists of two sculpted ramps rising up to the perron, offering all users easy, fluid access to the Palace. Scheduled to be inaugurated on the occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, this sculpture stands in this emblematic place of the French Republic as a symbol of welcome, reflecting the values of openness and inclusion carried by this institution and by major sporting events.

It follows on from the work Racines de France, created in 2016 for the South Terrace of the Élysée Palace.
    

Médulla

Resulting from a competition launched by the Mobilier National among our art and design schools, the new Council of Ministers table answers a precise set of specifications: it must be able to be assembled and dismantled quickly, and seat between 20 and 40 people.

The four winning students from the Olivier de Serres Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d'Art (ENSAAMA) imagined the table as a “spinal column of France”. Each of the 20 modules represents a vertebra, and the whole symbolizes unity and solidity. A long cavity runs right through it, like a spinal cord where information would circulate, hence the name of their project: Medulla.

Eleven companies were involved in its manufacture, with the metal base in the Loire, the fiber-reinforced concrete covering the top in Vendée, and the upholstery of the seats in the Vosges.

Most of the time, this table is installed in the Salon des Ambassadeurs.