Richard Serra Grand Palais / Paris

Richard Serra has been selected for the next commission at the Parisian Grand Palais. The project is part of a cycle of in-site art installations called “Monumenta,” curated by Centre Pompidou director Alfred Pacquement.
On this occasion, Serra will present Promenade, a series of five individual steel elements, each measuring 18 meter high and weighing over 70 tons.
The project, from May 7 to June 15, will be displayed at the central nave of the 115 square-meters Grand Palais, right next the famous Champs-Elysée. Serra has been preceded by Christian Boltansky and Anselm Kiefer, who inaugurated the ambitious project which, avoiding any kind of self-reference, will be enriched by an exceptional range of visitor services such as event’s web site, on-site docents, free audio-guides, educational workshop and cultural programs.
“Monumenta 2008,” accompanied by a catalogue and a DVD, confirms the importance of Richard Serra, who in 2002 played the role of the architect Hiram Abiff in Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3, as still one of the most challenging living artist. Last year Serra celebrated his forty-years’s carrier at the MoMA while in 2001 he was invited by Harald Szeemann at the Venice Biennale, where he presented a series of monumental works sponsored by Gucci, which actually is part of an enterprise – together with Ives Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Christie’s auction house and Château Latour vineyard – owned by French tycoon, philanthropist and contemporary art avid collector François Pinault.