The swimming pool of Roubaix: new works, exhibitions to come … Six things to know for the reopening of the museum

In work for eighteen months but closed to the public since April, the museum La Piscine de Roubaix finally reopens its doors this weekend. This Saturday, October 20th at 3 pm, to be precise.

The pool, what is it?

The old public baths of Roubaix were built by the Lille architect Albert Baer between 1927 and 1932. This swimming pool represented a rare space of social mix until its closure in 1985, for security reasons.

It was not until 2001 it reopens in the form of a museum occupying the former Hannart-Prouvost weaving mill, after three years of work.

Sculpture is immediately present, especially through numerous donations from the Musée d'Orsay. The extension project that is being completed today goes back to 2005 to support the success of the nascent museum. Thirteen years later and under the supervision of the architect Jean-Paul Philippon, it is now done.

What changed ?

Concretely, the museum has expanded by 2300 m² with this work (1600 m² built and 700 m² rehabilitated). The area open to the public will rise to 8000 m² this afternoon.

There are three main additions, which can be summarized as "contemporary ceramics, the history of Roubaix, contemporary sculptures and the Roubaix Group"Lists Bruno Gaudichon, director and curator of the museum.

The Roubaix Group is the name given to a group of artists who enriched "the Romanian art scene after the Second World War". In other words, the renaissance of the pool gives pride of place to the city, its heritage and its culture.

How many new works are there?

Difficult to estimate the exact number of new works: for example, the workshop of the sculptor Henri Bouchard includes hundreds of very different sizes, as well as some sculptural tools that can be counted as works.

At the end of September, the museum La Piscine suggested the approximate number an additional 1,000 works, in addition to 1,200 works (excluding textiles and furniture) already present.

What are the most important?

Among the most important works, we can mention this impressive panorama of the Town Hall of Roubaix, a tapestry of 78 m² – 13 meters long, 6 meters high – which represents the inauguration of the building in 1911.

This canvas was discovered in the mid-9s in the attic of the former Chamber of Commerce of Roubaix.

Another novelty that the museum puts forward: the reconstruction of the workshop of the sculptor Henri Bouchard, an artist considered a collaborator during the Second World War.

Her works (almost 900!) have been transported from his former Paris studio and Enjoy exactly the same setting and the same lightto understand the process of making a work.

In addition to Henri Bouchart's Apollo, a plaster sketch of the "true" Apollon Musagète which sits at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, there is also a room dedicated to Camille Claudel, or a stained-glbad window depicting "Mamadou de Roubaix", of which one tells you the story in this article.

Are there already exhibitions planned?

From October 20 to January 20, the Pool presents five exhibitions:

• "Picbado: The Man with the Sheep" offers a contextualized reading of an emblematic work of the history of modern sculpture. An exhibition that evokes the historical and personal circumstances of the creation of this pacifist monument, sculpture L'Homme au mouton.
• "Alberto Giacometti, Portrait of a Hero" brings together plaster and bronze sculptures, drawings and photographs by Alberto Giacometti. This ensemble questions more broadly the artist's political commitment, his anti-fascist sensibility and his links with the various movements of surrealism.
• "Hervé di Rosa, the work in the world", artist and globetrotter, curious and attentive to others, traveled the world to meet, to learn and share – through his meetings – craft and art. The exhibition "Work in the world" offers his view of the world.
• "Ghost paintings of Bailleul", this exhibition features paintings by artists from the region from the exact measurements and descriptions of paintings destroyed or stolen from the museum of Bailleul during the First World War.
• "Nage Libre" offers a dialogue between the work of the Belgian ceramic artists of the World Crafts Council – Belgium Francophone of Mons and the permanent collections of the museum.

What if I can not come?

France 3 Nord-Pas-de-Calais will make you live reopening from the museum in a special live broadcast this Saturday at 8:15 pm, on the air and on our Facebook page.

Céline Rousseaux will be among the key players of this great change: Bruno Gaudichon, the curator of La Piscine and Alice Mbadé, the badistant curator of La Piscine.

They will visit this museum and stop, among others, in the room dedicated to the history of Roubaix, in the sculpture gallery or on the temporary exhibition on Picbado.

Laurent Navez will collect the impressions of the visitors facing this "new" pool. He will also be with members of the Friends of the Museum Association, which has 4,000 members.