Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project

One of the key missions of the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum Project is to mirror and promote Chinese culture in the world, and bring culture from all around the globe to Chinese audiences as well, which is a new exploration of the cultural exchange between China and foreign cultures.

In this perspective, the Centre Pompidou and the West Bund Museum signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2017. It was taken as the highest-level cultural cooperation project between China and France, and was included in the Joint Declaration between the People's Republic of China and the French Republic in 2018. And in 2019, it opened to the public at the special moment of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations. 

Over a five-year period, through the collaboration, the Centre Pompidou and West Bund Museum will have cultural programming whether in terms of museum exhibitions, seminars, performing art, educational activities or cultural outreach, with the aim of cultural and artistic exchanges between China and France. The semi-permanent exhibition and feature exhibitions will be presented to the public at the West Bund Museum in Shanghai; while at the same time several significant Chinese cultural and artistic projects with representative significance will be exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Centre Pompidou, the French national cultural institution established in Paris in 1977, incorporates the Musée National d’Art Moderne, which houses the richest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, and one of the two largest in the world. From magnificent historical archives to the newest acquisitions, the collection encompasses the realms of visual arts, photography, new media, graphic arts, experimental cinema, architecture and design. It contains more than 120,000 works and is a genuine reference in 20th and 21st century art.