Palais d’Iéna-Conseil économique

l’art en plus advises the Palais d’Iéna-Conseil économique, social et environnemental on exhibitions since 2017.

The Palais d’Iéna—a masterful design by architect Auguste Perret, built from reinforced concrete in the 1930s—has housed the Conseil Économique, social et environnemental, or CESE (the Economic, Social and Environmental Council) in Paris since 1959. The building has always housed creative pieces, notably furniture designed by Pierre Paulin and Martin Szekely, as well as tapestries created by artists and specially manufactured in Beauvais, Aubusson or the Gobelins. For the CESE, and all the organizations headquartered there, opening the venue up to host installations serves as a reminder of culture’s importance within the public sphere. For several years, timed with Paris+, the CESE has been inviting either a curator or an artist to design an exhibition in dialogue with the modern classicism of Perret’s monumental spaces. The exhibitions are jointly conceived with the artist’s gallery, and additional works are loaned from collectors and institutions. Previous years featured British artist Antony Gormley, Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli, Franco-Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Brazilian artist Artur Lescher. In 2018, a group exhibition retraced a century of abstract and mobile sculpture (1918-2018). In 2019, iconic Italian Arte Povera artist Giuseppe Penone presented a monumental work, Matrice di linfa, within the space.The Brazilian artist Lucia Koch occupied the spaces on the occasion of the first edition of Paris+ (2022).