Malta’s Ambassador of Culture FRANCIS SULTANA shares his fifth monthly arts and culture column in collaboration with Times of Malta, this time focusing on exhibitions in the French capital city.

Over the past few months, travel is still rather challenging for so many of us. During the Christmas holidays, I have to admit that one of my guilty pleasures has been to disappear to Paris via Netflix with the rather cliched Emily! I remember that sense of excitement and wonderment when I first visited Paris as a wide-eyed teenager, just like Emily, and it is something that has never really left me.

The Pompidou Centre was the first museum I ever visited in Paris. Back in 1991, I remember feeling slightly overwhelmed when I first laid eyes on this ‘inside out’ building designed by the late Sir Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. It was so modern, so new and so very different from anything I had seen in Malta, it seemed like another world. Fast forward a few decades and now we are lucky to have Piano’s work gracing the City Gate in Valletta.

Francis Sultana. Photo: Jonathan Glynn Smith

However, I do feel strongly that attracting world-renowned architects like Piano and the late Zaha Hadid to Malta is an important step for our country. We must all keep the arts as part of our everyday lives, be that the things that we consume, the things we look at or the buildings we build, and yet what are we creating now? In Paris the ability to create the new while respecting the old is of paramount importance for architects and developers. It is something we in Malta should be inspired by.

As a board member of MICAS, Malta’s new space for contemporary art which is set to open in 2023, the concept of building a new showcase for art within an old urban setting has been something that we have been careful to respect.

MICAS will be set within the old fortifications of the Ospizio in Floriana, and the new building will be able to offer a space that can at last house major international exhibitions. Equally, it will honour its location and historical past.

Musée de Cluny

In the old Latin quarter of Paris, the Musée de Cluny (currently housed in the old medieval hôtel de Cluny, once the townhouse of the abbots of Cluny) will be revealing its new contemporary extension later this spring.

Created by architect Bernard Desmoulin, the new entrance to the existing medieval building, which also sits right on top of Paris’s ancient thermal Roman baths, was required so that the space could work as a modern museum fit for the 21st century.

The architect wanted the structure to be both present and visible, so that visitors can actually find the building, but also absent, so that it sits effortlessly within the ancient walls that connect to the gothic structure where the main collections are held.

I think other cities could take note of this style of multi-centre collaboration, taking a show and running its core themes across an entire city

The new extension will also offer a visitor centre and a wonderful sweeping staircase that connects the spaces. Paris’ major museums are no strangers to contemporary extensions.

Charles Ray, Fall 1991-1992, at the Pompidou Centre.

Back to the Pompidou – another show that is just opening is that of US artist Charles Ray. This will be running at the Pompidou and concurrently at the new Pinault Collection at the Bourse de Commerce, open until June 20. Ray’s work asks the question: “What is Sculpture?” Often, he juxtaposes historical images and motifs from Renaissance and antiquity with the everyday, usually with a dose of humour. I love that this show, like with the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition, is proving how well institutions can work together. I think other cities could take note of this style of multi-centre collaboration, taking a show and running its core themes across an entire city.

As well as the big spaces, one of the highlights of Paris, for me, is seeking out the smaller galleries. The Thaddeus Ropac gallery, located in the wonderful Marais, has a show that truly captures the iconic Paris of the 60s and 70s. Japanese photographer Yoshi Takata worked alongside the likes of Cartier-Bresson and Brassaï.

Takata chronicled the streets and people of Paris through her lens with such a keen eye, capturing incongruous everyday moments, often with humour. In the 60s, she began working with French designer Pierre Cardin and would often merge fashion photography with the skills she had learnt as a street photographer, creating some of fashion’s most iconic images. The show runs until April 23.

Another view of Galerie Kreo. Photo: Alexandra De Cossette, Courtesy Galerie Kreo

Another fabulous gem is Galerie Kreo. Running throughout March, INSIDE creates interior sets within the gallery of a dining room, living room, office and relaxation space and fills them with a mix of vintage and contemporary design. For my interior design work, I always love working with Galerie Kreo, and this show features some wonderful pieces by Franco Albini, Sergio Asti and Pierre Paulin, alongside work by designers of today, including Konstantin Grcic, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby and Jamie Hayon.

To finish a perfect day of gallery hopping, I always visit Galerie Mitterand. Located in a beautiful townhouse in the Marais, the gallery once showed only sculpture but now it exhibits a wide range of important works, and I always find inspiration within its doors.

For anyone interested in seeing many of Paris’ best smaller galleries and dealers under one roof I recommend a visit to PAD Paris (there is London edition in October). It’s a wonderful way to see the best of the city’s 20th and 21st-century design, art and sculpture and I would urge you to book your tickets now as the show runs from April 5 to 10.

After such a long time with no events, I simply cannot wait to see so many faces I haven’t seen over the past two years, and in the words of our little friend Emily in Paris – a little bonjour goes a long way!

Stay tuned for the next monthly cultural column in April. If you would like to check out what I am up to each month, follow me on Instagram @francis_sultana.