“One building, one business”: already 350 facilities in Ile-de-France

A glass roof and mirror ceiling reflect the Seine River and the rooftops of Paris. On the 15th and 16th floors of the Morland Building, Vision City, the work of artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Sebastian Bahmann, stands out as the cornerstone of the real estate programme. The panoramic installation, which is visible to the building’s restaurant customers, was designed at the same time as the ambitious – €450 million – rehabilitation of the former administrative city was taking place under the leadership of architect David Chipperfield. This is how the “one building, one business” system works, of which Vision City is one of the latest creations.

This artistic sponsorship program was launched in 2015 by the Ministry of Culture and promoter Emerige, and relies entirely on the will of the 81 promoters, lessors and land companies signatories to the charter. The principle is simple: every time they build a collective building in France, real estate investors finance the installation of a work of art in common areas or public squares. “Our initial idea was simple: to spread art to as many people as possible, establish beauty in the city by expanding the work of architects, and support living French artists,” says Alexandra François Koksak, vice president of Club 1. Building 1 Action, which She participated in launching the project when she was president of the Real Estate Promotion Union.

500 artists

Since 2015, 700 artworks created by 500 artists – Daniel Buren, Françoise Petrovic, and others – have seen the light of day within 500 real estate programmes. For an entry ticket of between 10,000 and 100,000 euros per work, the promoters – Bouygues Immobilier, Emerige and Eiffage for the most active – have dotted the area with installations sometimes selected from galleries, sometimes made-to-measure, in accordance with the architectural programme. . “Our bet was to irrigate the lands, offices and residences, as well as the neighborhoods thanks to the social landlords,” explains Alexandra François Koksak.

In Ile-de-France, 350 works were installed using this system. Latest questions asked: Questions by Cécile Gaillard in Villiers le Bell (Val d’Oise) for the social owner in La Poste Toit et Joie, or Hugo Cervanon in Cuvivieux’s Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), or Questions by the duo artist Lange Baumann at the University of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) For Bouygues Immobilier.

In Paris, Vinci installed a fresco by Mathilde Junquiere marking the entrance to the Maison Saint-Charles (15th arrondissement). The Terot Group is planning an artist intervention on the façade of the French Institute in the 11th arrondissement mid-2024. Emerige, who already has around a hundred works to his credit, has commissioned La Traversée from visual artist Eva Jospin for the Beaupassage programme, and more recently The Seeing City from Olafur Eliasson’s Other Spaces studio. The rehabilitation work of the building, the first winner of the Reinvent Paris competition to emerge from the ground, has been carried out alongside the city. Including at the technical level.

“1 Build 1 Work” was designed to complement public policies supporting artistic creativity, in particular “1% Artistic”, thanks to which, since 1951, the state has published 12,400 works, especially in Parisian universities and hospitals.

Despite its glowing start, the program is also more fragile than its public counterpart: its funding depends solely on real estate players, which are currently suffering from a serious crisis. We have experienced difficulties that we have never experienced before for three years. The number of housing units produced is declining. “Therefore, without an evaluation yet, it is certain that fewer works will be installed this year,” says Alexandra François Koksak.