The Swiss Cultural Centre in Paris has reopened after 4 years of renovation work
Keystone-SDA
Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider visited the Centre culturel suisse (Swiss cultural centre – CCS) in Paris on Tuesday. After four years of renovation work, it reopens its doors to the public on Thursday, with a party in the Marais district.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
“I hope that the CCS will remain a place of encounters and discovery,” said the head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) at a press conference. “It is part of our country’s international cultural presence.”
“It is part of a Parisian environment that is extremely rich in foreign cultural centres, and this mix is wonderful,” she added. The modernisation of the CCS, which will notably improve access, has cost CHF7.3 million ($9.24 million), according to Pro Helvetia CEO Michael Kinzer. The work has made it possible to rethink the circulation between spaces and to make the rooms modular.
For Baume-Schneider, “the CCS offers a unique place of visibility and helps to raise the profile of an artistic scene in Switzerland that is recognised not only for its diversity but also for its independence”, she said.
More
More
Six Swiss cities to bid for 2030 ‘Capital of Culture’ title
“The CCS functions as a genuine platform for production, dissemination and dialogue,” said Baume-Schneider. “Its ambition is to remain a major player in the artistic scene in Paris in the future.”
Performing arts
Housed since 1985 in a 17th-century town house on rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the Centre culturel suisse has established itself as a showcase for contemporary Swiss art in Paris. It was the first branch office opened abroad by Pro Helvetia, and had never been renovated.
During the renovation work, the institution continued its off-site activities in several French cities, from Dunkirk to Guadeloupe. The management hopes to continue this “CSS on tour”.
In an ultra-competitive market with a thousand artistic proposals every day in Paris, the CCS is a strategic asset for all Swiss performing arts, whether from French-speaking, German-speaking or Ticino-speaking Switzerland.
To celebrate its reopening, the Centre culturel suisse (CCS) is organising a major celebration from 26 to 29 March, featuring concerts, performances, screenings and exhibitions. It’s a signal that the CCS wants to be a place for art and life in the heart of Paris, where people come day and night to see an exhibition, listen to a concert or simply hang out in the courtyard.
Translated from French by AI/jdp
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
