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Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine: The Latest Architecture and News

"Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy" Opens at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France

The 2022 Biennale of FRAC in the Centre-Val De Loire Region, France, is exhibiting the work of 55 women for its third edition entitled Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy. The fair showcases pieces from the Center Pompidou and the Cité de l'architecture et du Patrimoine collection and brings special guests such as architect Anna Heringer and Journalist and Director Rokhaya Diallo. From September 2022 to January 1st, 2023, female artists, architects, and politicians will gather to discuss and create a new definition of inclusive and plural democracy in the city, architecture, design, and art.

"Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy" Opens at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France - Image 1 of 4"Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy" Opens at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France - Image 2 of 4"Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy" Opens at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France - Image 3 of 4"Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy" Opens at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France - Image 4 of 4Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy Opens at the 2022 Biennale of FRAC in France - More Images+ 16

Uncovering Viollet-le-Duc's "Unexpected" Career

Uncovering Viollet-le-Duc's "Unexpected" Career - Image 2 of 4
Half of a rhombohedron. Remains of a crystal system separating the glacier of Envers Blaitière Vallée Blanche (Viollet-le-Duc). Image © Médiathèque de l’architecture & du patrimoine

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the French architect most famous for the 'restoration' of Notre-Dame de Paris, is a person we unequivocally associate with 19th century Gothic Revival. Although there is no doubt that his interpretive restorations of medieval French monuments were some of his greatest achievements, a new exhibition at Paris' Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine seeks to uncover a "well-connected character who pursued an uninterrupted career drawing, building, teaching, restoring, and many other things."

In a review for Domus, Léa-Catherine Szacka examines this first major retrospective dedicated to the designer, theorist and artist since 1980 in celebration of the bicentennial of his birth. According to Szacka curator Jean-Michel Leniaud has, in this exhibition, shifted focus to Viollet-le-Duc's artistic output, thereby presenting "the less known and the more unexpected aspect" of his career.