Five exhibitions that have marked the history of the center and art – Liberation

In the spring of 1977, it was the very first exhibition at the Center Pompidou. Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Daniel Spoerri and Bernhard Luginbühl raise a pile of phenomenal scrap in the middle of the forum. It is « The street that enters the museum » summarize artists at the time. Because « Always a little in agreement (but too much) with the safety and imperatives of Beaubourg ”, They want to shake the museum institution by giving birth to a gigantic vociferating installation in which visitors are invited, as in a ghost train, to circulate on board small wagons. Saint Phalle and Tinguely, with the blessing of Pontus Hultenthe first director of the center, design the bow (a dragon head with articulated jaw) and the belly of the beast. It is with this same infernal trio that the Center Pompidou returns today for the first exhibition it organizes at the Grand Palais, which will house its temporary exhibitions during the period of work (« Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten », from June 20 to January 4, 2026).

« How did we get there? » Is it serious? Very serious but it is useless to make it a disease ”, quipped the art critic Hervé Gauville in the