Thirty Years for Contemporary Art - Volume 1

Distributed on behalf of the Fondation Cartier, Paris

In 1984, acting on a suggestion by the artist Ce sar, Alain Dominique Perrin, then President of Cartier International, decided to set up an arts foundation. Thus the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain was born, and this year it is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. Dedicated to promoting contemporary art and making it accessible to the general public, the Fondation Cartier is a place of artistic creation as well as a crossroads where all spheres of contemporary thought intersect and come together.

In 1994, the institution moved from its original location on the Montcel estate in Jouy-en-Josas to a new home of glass and steel in Paris specially designed by Jean Nouvel. Playing with transparency, the architecture of this exceptional edifice seeks, in the words of its architect, "to blur the tangible edges of the building and render the perception of it as a solid mass superfluous in a poetics of indistinctness and evanescence."

For its thirtieth anniversary, the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain is publishing a lavishly illustrated book that reflects its unique character and identity, which have become inextricably linked to the building designed by Nouvel. The book features interviews with the major figures who have contributed to the history of the institution along with images of thirty years of exhibitions and outstanding events. It also highlights the many facets of Nouvel's structure as it has changed over time, over the seasons and in relation to the exhibitions it has housed, revealing the extraordinary flexibility of a space that is an eternal source of inspiration for the artists it hosts.