Who are we?
Lafayette Anticipations oversees initiatives for the support of contemporary creation led by two general interest organisms, the Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette and the Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, established by the Galeries Lafayette Group and its stakeholder family.
Lafayette Anticipations is a general interest foundation structured around its production activities and support provided to contemporary creation. The Fondation acts as a catalyser, providing artists unique, made-to-measure conditions in which to produce, experiment and exhibit.
Since its opening on March 10, 2018, the Fondation has been the first multidisciplinary centre of its kind in France. In its 19th century building situated in the heart of the Marais and renovated by OMA, Rem Koolhaas’s architecture firm, the public discovers a curatorial machine in which new pieces produced by international creators – stemming from the fields of contemporary art, design and fashion – are presented.
Throughout the building’s renovation from 2013 to 2017, Lafayette Anticipations explored the Fondation’s evolving identity during artist-in-residence programmes, workshops, partnerships and direct support for the production of pieces.
This pre-launch programme was marked by numerous events organised by Lafayette Anticipations, namely Les Prolégomènes, Venir Voir Venir, Joining Forces with the Unknown and Composer les mesures de son espaces, as well as by projects led with partner institutions, including the Centre Pompidou, the Archives nationales, the Kunsthalle Basel, MoMA PS1, Performa and the New Museum.
Lafayette Anticipations also supports contemporary creation through the Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin. Established in 2013, this endowment fund implements initiatives to support general interest artistic projects, while pursuing a policy of acquisition and enhancement of its art collection.
A word from Guillaume Houzé
Drawing on the heritage of Galeries Lafayette, which has always associated designers with its plans, Lafayette Anticipations was born of the conviction that the pulse of a society is taken from the wrists of its artists.
We had this singular vision when we established the Fondation in 2012 as a mission of general interest, and it has become particularly clear four years later.
We had imagined a place dedicated to the most current thinking, capable of involving - as close as possible to the march of the world and the issues of the day - artists, designers, authors, choreographers... so that each and every one of us can help us to glimpse the worlds to come.
While history, which was said to be over, is once again getting out of control, the creators, true to their role as lighthouses, come to 9 rue du Plâtre to invent, debate, propose and above all re-enchant the immediate horizon of possibilities that they hold.
Here we provide them with tools to enable them to multiply their capacity for action, to bring out new forms and ideas. We have created this space with Rem Koolhaas and his agency OMA, around a production workshop, a mobile exhibition tower and an open passageway, designed to make the unknown an ally.
Whether you come alone or with your family, for ten minutes, an hour or a day, our Fondation is designed so that everyone could dream, discuss and be surprised.
