DP MJCCSW 4.10_EN - copie - Maison de la France

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Severin Wunderman, collector and benefactor Born in 1938 in Belgium and forced during the Second World War to seek exile in the United States, Severin Wunderman rose from his beginnings as an apprentice watchmaker to become a leading figure in the Swiss luxury watchmaking industry. An art lover from his youth, with a particular interest in the works of Cocteau, he was only 19 when on a whim he acquired the first piece in his collection – an original drawing of a scene from the writer’s novel Les Enfants Terribles (The Holy Terrors) – spending nearly all of his first salary payment as an apprentice watchmaker. He would continue to build up his collection over the years, founding a museum in Irvine, California to display these works in 1985. But his fervent wish was that a large number of the pieces in his collection would return to France one day, where a museum might give them a permanent home. Smitten with Menton, a town of great symbolic importance for any admirer of Cocteau, Severin Wunderman arranged to meet deputy mayor Jean-‐Claude Guibal, who helped him to bring this project to fruition. On 27 June 2005, following Wunderman’s exceptional gift, the town of Menton, with the backing of France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication, entered into a commitment to build a public museum to house his collection. The foundation stone was laid on 29 December 2008, at a ceremony which Wunderman was regrettably not able to attend as he had passed away just a few months earlier. In September 2005, the Ministry of Culture and Communication had approved the registration of the Severin Wunderman collection as part of the holdings of the Musée Jean Cocteau in Menton, which has held the status of a “Musée de France”, alongside such institutions as the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles, since 2003. Brief biographies Séverin Wunderman © Ville de Menton Jean-‐Claude Guibal, Deputy Mayor, Menton The shimmering light of his native Corsica and the potent identity of the peoples of the Mediterranean have left their indelible mark on Jean-‐Claude Guibal, born in Ajaccio on 13 January 1941. It was therefore quite natural that, after pursuing higher studies at a number of France’s most prestigious institutions – earning diplomas at HEC in 1963, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in 1965, the ENA in 1967 and named a reserve officer by the Ecole d’Application de l’Arme Blindée Cavalerie in Saumur (the training school for the armoured cavalry branch of the French Army) in 1966 – and following several positions in both the public and private sectors, Guibal then launched his political career in Menton, becoming the town’s mayor in 1989, before being elected as its representative to the French National Assembly in 1997. In this body, where he serves as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, his passion for the Mare Nostrum has led, among other distinctions, to his appointment as France’s representative to the Parliamentary Assembly for the Mediterranean. 4
Committed to the preservation and promotion of Menton’s historical, architectural and botanical heritage, he has been instrumental in giving this Côte d’Azur town, a mere stone’s throw from the Italian border, the status of a cultural destination in its own right, where bold projects ennoble the spirit of the site and reinforce its authenticity. The conception of the musée Jean Cocteau collection Séverin Wunderman, entrusted to the architect Rudy Ricciotti, whose use of light and line rivals that of his most celebrated predecessors, is the logical outgrowth of Guibal’s encounter with Severin Wunderman and his desire to pay homage to the artist who had chosen to give free rein to his expression in a place he adored. Célia Bernasconi, Curator, musée Jean Cocteau collection Séverin Wunderman Born in 1977, Célia Bernasconi was appointed curator of the musée Jean Cocteau collection Séverin Wunderman in 2005. A graduate of the Université de Strasbourg and the Université de Paris I, Bernasconi holds a postgraduate degree (DEA) in modern and contemporary art history and is currently working towards her Ph.D at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales under the guidance of Daniel Arasse. Bernasconi successfully completed the entrance exams for France’s national institute for cultural heritage (Institut National du Patrimoine) in 2002. She developed an interest in Cocteau’s works on paper as a logical extension of her studies focusing on the influence of the Florentine Early Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello (born Paolo di Dono) on twentieth-‐century artists. Along with Carlo Carra, Apollinaire, André Breton, Antonin Artaud and Paul Eluard, Cocteau rediscovered this painter with his painstaking attachment to perspective who had been spurned by his contemporaries, adopting him as a cult figure. In the 1920s, Cocteau signed his works “Jean l’Oiseleur”, in honour of his distant predecessor’s moniker, earned due to his fondness for painting birds. Project feasibility analysis and preliminary design team SA17 (Maïa Rabinowitz, Numa Granda Bonilla), architects and planners Frédéric Ladonne, architect, planner and specialist in preventive conservation Parica (Denis Vevaud), engineering design and economic analysis Among related projects involving the participation of these same team members, SA17 and Frédéric Ladonne previously worked together on the study for the construction of the Picardie branch office of the FRAC (Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain) at Amiens (the design by the Japanese architect Toyo Ito was selected). Frédéric Ladonne subsequently worked on projects for the Atelier-‐Musée du Verre (a glass museum and workshop at Trélon, near Avesnes), the Musée Archéologique Henri Prades at Lattes near Montpellier, the Musée des Beaux-‐Arts at Dijon and the Musée des Monuments Français at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris (with Parica). SA17 worked with Parica on the project for the construction of storerooms and renovation work at the Musée Ingres in Montauban. This project was led by Isabelle Crosnier, agent, architect and planner, who shared her particular expertise with Rabinowitz and Granda Bonilla of SA17. The partnership with Isabelle Crosnier and Parica has continued, particularly in connection with projects for the refurbishment of the Musée Henri Martin at Cahors, the refurbishment of the Quadrilatère Richelieu (the former site of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris), the construction of storerooms for the Musée de Bayonne and the refurbishment of the Archives Nationales in Paris. 5
Page 1 and 2: Opens to the public on 6 November 2
Page 3: I. GENESIS OF THE PROJECT: A SERIES
Page 7 and 8: October 2009 Construction work begi
Page 9 and 10: l’Imposteur, were conceived durin
Page 11 and 12: Overview of the collection* Jean Co
Page 13 and 14: Jean Cocteau Le Jeune Aviateur (Rol
Page 15 and 16: PART II THE COLLECTION IN 10 VIEWS
Page 17 and 18: Artothèque de Bordeaux, Musée de
Page 19 and 20: V. THE ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT* Selec
Page 21 and 22: © Lisa Ricciotti “The truth is t
Page 23 and 24: © Lisa Ricciotti * All images are
Page 25 and 26: VI. VISITOR INFORMATION MUSEE JEAN

DP MJCCSW 4.10_EN - copie - Maison de la France

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