Centre Pompidou pays tribute to Tadao Ando with major retrospective

From October 10 to December 31, Centre Pompidou presents an exceptional retrospective dedicated to Japanese architect Tadao Ando. With “Le Défi”, curator Frédéric Migayrou has chosen to highlight some fifty major projects carried out by the former professional boxer who became an architect in the 1960s. Since the creation of his agency in Osaka in 1969, Tadao Ando has worked countercurrent to the major architectural trends of his time, and has put forward nature as well as the human body in his creations. The exhibition presents the evolution of his practice through models (70 in total), nearly 180 sketches and films that follow the different periods of his work. Among the projects which models can be seen up close, “L’Église de la lumière” or the soon-to-be-open Bourse de Commerce. On Monday evening, day of the opening, the architect was to be seen alongside Françoise Nyssen (Ministry of Culture), Centre Pompidou President Serge Lasvignes as well a the Musée d’art moderne director Bernard Blistène. Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy were also in attendance, as well as the artists Christian Boltanski and Xavier Veilhan, and the architect Renzo Piano, to whom we owe the Centre Pompidou’s emblematic design.