Nathan Chiche s'installe dans une école de Prouvé

The article

In Le Quotidien de l’Art, Stéphanie Pioda describes how Galerie Nathan Chiche moved into the municipal school of Vantoux, built by Jean Prouvé in 1951 and in use until 2014. It all began with an advertisement spotted on Leboncoin: the call for projects launched a year earlier by the town hall.

The journalist details the restoration, which cost 620,000 euros and was 92% subsidised, and during which the Métalliers Lorrains cleaned all the metal structures by hand. The school, listed as a historic monument (supplementary inventory) in 2001, comprises a classroom and a workshop; the municipality kept its furniture and sold the schoolmaster's lodging to Galerie Seguin. Among the applications, which included a hotel project, Nathan Chiche's was chosen, for a rent that the mayor, Antoine Dorr, acknowledges to be well below the market rate.

The gallerist wants to reconcile commerce and culture, with educational programmes run with schools and universities and four exhibitions a year linked to Prouvé. For the opening, on 16 May, Jean-Pierre Raynaud reproduces the image of a Neolithic skull from his collection on white ceramic tiles, remnants of the French pavilion at the 1993 Venice Biennale, and draws a parallel between prehistory and childhood.

The article also introduces Nathan Chiche, aged 24, son of Patricia Chicheportiche (Galerie 208) and a lover of bookbinding, who is opening a bookshop devoted to bibliophile editions, multiples and design objects. The gallery, open from Thursday to Saturday, is directed by Bernardo Di Battista and is counting on the proximity of the Centre Pompidou-Metz.

Read the article on the Le Quotidien de l'Art website ↗