Museum of Modern Art in Strasbourg

Brief Information

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strasbourg stands where the municipal slaughterhouses once were. This fact changes the first impression of the place: the building on the left bank of the River Ill did not appear as a neutral museum box, but as a new cultural function on a site with a very different past.

The museum was founded in 1973, but it received its own building only at the end of 1998. Inside, its logic is broader than the usual “museum of contemporary art”: the exhibition covers the period from 1870 to the present day. That is why it is important here to look not only at individual names, but at the long line of art that connects modernism, the avant-garde, postwar movements, and current exhibitions.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to compare three parts of the place: the riverside site, the adjoining courtyard, and the roof. The left bank of the Ill recalls that the museum occupied a former urban service area. The adjoining Place Jean-Arp shows another continuation of this idea: since the museum was created, the courtyard has become a cultural space where people freely rollerblade and skateboard.

The roof adds the most noticeable accent. On the spacious terrace there is a cafe, and nearby stands the four-meter horse sculpture Hortus conclusus by Domenico Paladino. This detail is useful for reading the building: art here is not confined only to the galleries. It is brought out onto the museum’s exterior parts and links the everyday use of the space with the museum collection and temporary exhibitions.