LA PANACÉE. THE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURE. MONTPELLIER
La Panacée, the center for contemporary culture of the City of Montpellier, opened its doors to the public on June 22, 2013.
Located in the city center, this venue for contemporary culture emphasizes a cross-disciplinary approach and features exhibitions and events in three main areas: the visual arts, new forms of writing, and digital technology.
A platform for creation and experimentation, La Panacée gives audiences of all ages the chance to try out a new relationship to art.
La Panacée is committed to discovering, supporting, and producing new artists with an eye toward encouraging new artistic practices in an evolving world, notably through artistic residencies. An unparalleled emphasis is placed on students, with the inclusion of an in-house university residency thanks to a partnership between the City of Montpellier and the CROUS (a student welfare organization).
The center is the latest addition to a growing family of major European art venues which have opened in recent years. These centers identify themselves with the notion of contemporary culture, welcoming a wide range of artistic practices and experimenting with new relations between art and the public.
History
In turn Royal Medical School, Graduate School of Pharmacy, and National Health Laboratory, La Panacée is one of the most recognizable symbols of Montpellier’s medical history.
NEW ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL PRACTICES
La Panacée strives to explore artistic projects that share a common interest in examining our perceptions of an evolving world:
TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTS and the ways in which they transform artistic practice and our modes of thinking and perceiving.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF WRITTEN FORMS the focus is on supporting projects which experiment with writing on new platforms, emphasizing interaction between writers and artists of different disciplines.
QUESTIONING THE SYSTEM OF ART La Panacée will enlist artists and curators from France and abroad who critically examine the art system, the notion of authorship and intellectual property, and questions of the exhibition and museum visit.
AN OPENNESS TO INTERNATIONAL ART SCENES in order to build ties between international and homegrown artists.
REINVENTING THE PUBLIC’S RELATION TO ART
Digital practices are reconfiguring our relationship to art and culture. The ways in which we assimilate artistic and cultural objects, exchange with each other, and build memories through the digital record are changing. La Panacée strives to reinvent a relation between visitor, artwork and venue based on expermentation and sharing. We encourage every visitor to use, participate in, relate to, and converse with the artworks at La Panacée.
La fabrique du sensible
La Fabrique du sensible brings together outreach and educational activities, offering the public the chance to act, create and forge their own connection with the art world it encounters. Artists, guest speakers, and outreach coordinators run workshops for all ages.
Le musée de la conversation
The Musée de la conversation creates environments and events that spark discussion around exhibitions and programs, including conferences, talks, Q&As, and the dissemination and sharing of resources and materials.
L’ecole de La Panacée
These new practices also generate new ties between culture and the dissemination of knowledge. La Panacée plans to gradually implement a school with a mission to encourage new modes of learning through a cross-disciplinary approach to digital technology and in conjuction with the temporary exhibits.
ARTISTS ASSOCIATED WITH DESIGNING THE VENUE
La Panacée invited artists, designers, architects, graphic designers, and developers to create projects in residency, in order to affirm the importance of art in the day-to-day life of the venue. Those associated with the opening include:
ABRèGe & Kidnap Your Designer; 1024 Architecture; Cigüe; Sébastien Cordoléani and Coloco.
AN ART CENTER OPEN TO AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES AND FREE-OF-CHARGE
La Panacée offers a wide array of venues: exhibition spaces, a café, a patio, an auditorium, a resource center…
This all-inclusive environnement encourages exchanges between artists, students, and researchers.
Entrance to the exhibitions is free-of-charge.
Numerous activities are open to visitors of all ages (adults, children, teens). Events held in the auditorium (conferences, projections, performances) are by reservation only.
La Panacée is accessible to the mobility impaired.
For more information (on workshops, performances, events, conferences…).
LA PANACÉE
Centre de culture contemporaine
14 rue de l’Ecole de Pharmacie – 34000 Montpellier
T + 33(0)4 34 88 79 79 – www.lapanacee.org
VILLE DE MONTPELLIER
Direction de la Culture & du Patrimoine
