Pom pom pidou - Shaking Up the Museum

Catalogue of the exhibition Pom pom pidou - Shaking Up the Museum, during the festival Fiesta- Lille3000, presented at the Tripostal, Lille (26 april - 9 november 2025).

The Pom Pom Pidou exhibition uses the collection and masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou as a starting point for unveiling the stunning story of modern and contemporary art on three levels of the Tripostal, the flagship in lille3000’s major cultural seasons. It demonstrates the extent to which the scope and boundaries of art were continually tested throughout the 20th century and up to the present time.

The ground floor is transformed into a museum of the avant-garde, boosted by Robert Delaunay’s colourful rhythmic paintings and the vortex paintings by František Kupka. The adventure continues with the Italian Futurists, who declared the beauty of speed, followed by Marcel Duchamp’s bold challenge to the art world, with his revolutionary ready-mades. The chronological itinerary is punctuated by contemporary counterpoints, such as designer lamps and a light projection by Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

On the first floor, art is challenged even further with the Dada movement, followed by the Nouveaux Réalistes, who borrowed items from the street, such as posters and everyday objects, and moved them into the noble art of painting. While the Fluxus movement placed spectator participation at the heart of artistic concerns, after 1960 artists involved in Pop Art or Narrative Figuration offered a direct response to the flood of media images.

Lastly, the second floor of the Tripostal will feel somewhat like a laboratory, with a focus on experimental research and new technologies: algorithmic works by Vera Molnar, sensorial environments and NFT files, created by artists and recently purchased by the Centre Pompidou − National Museum of Modern Art. In this way, the history of art from the 20th century to the present time can be seen as a slightly offbeat machine, incorporating various rhythms, gears and disruptions, and shaken up by the unexpected.

Over the course of this chronological visit, interspersed with interdisciplinary exchange (design, architecture, comics), the Centre Pompidou is showcasing major works from its collection, while celebrating its multidisciplinary approach with innovative offerings for visitors. During their visit, spectators are invited to take part in a game designed by artist Elsa Werth. It echoes the game boxes conceived by Fluxus artists in the 1960s and 70s. In a room exploring links between comic books and painting, the Centre Pompidou’s public information library (BPI) offers a reading corner, with works by comic book author and artist Jochen Gerner. Towards the end of the visit, a space showcases the architectural project for the Centre Pompidou, with previously unseen drawings by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The “Beaubourg plateau”, site of the future Centre Pompidou, may be seen as a response from the cultural institutions to the many challenges raised by the art movements of the 20th century.