In 2007, in close succession, the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris and
the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in Nantes added two new ornaments to the
garland of museums owing their awakening or reawakening to Jean-François Bodin.
Two works of renewal/re-conversion and museography/scenography, all domains in
which the Bodin architecture firm’s excellence is renowned.
Testifying to this, the Matisse Museum in Nice, the CAPC-Museum of Contemporary
Art in Bordeaux, the Cambrai Museum of Fine Arts, the Rochechouart Museum of
Contemporary Art, the Octavian Society in Hong Kong, and the complete overhauls
achieved with the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Centre
Pompidou...
To these major architectural interventions must be added the numerous exhibitions
designed and staged by Jean-François Bodin, on behalf of the Musée d’Orsay, the
Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Grand-Palais, the Hôtel de la Monnaie
and the Sorbonne in Paris, and additionally, the Lille Palace of Fine Arts and the
Nantes Museum of Fine Arts as well as the dazzling outdoor exhibition of the
Champs-Elysées de la sculpture.As for the art galleries owing their “readability” to
Bodin (Claire Burrus, Yvon Lambert, Remos Xippas...), they are countless.
Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the firm has entered into a long-term
collaboration with Sotheby’s auction house.
***
Museums, major exhibitions, galleries, clearly the art world and this keen-eyed
architect / collector are a natural fit.
Still, the art world is but one domain where the Bodin firm’s knowledge and
expertise exert their influence. Fashion too occupies a key place. And just as with
the art world, the names resonate resoundingly: Azzedine Alaïa, Hémisphère, Issey
Miyaké, Charles Kammer, Lacoste, Karl Lagerfeld, Mafia, Thierry Mugler...Here too,
the firm puts to work all its skill, implements all its capacities: architecture, interior
architecture and design...Factories (Lacoste, Saint-Laurent...), offices, showrooms,
boutiques, and even a school (the French Fashion Institute), have sprung from all
these fruitful collaborations.
Hence, Interior architecture with memorable interventions for highly prestigious
clients such as Havas, L’intendant, Marionnaud, Nicolas Feuillate champagnes,
Renault, RSCG Corp, Thomson and Unilever...whose headquarters, research
institutes, logistics centres, show-rooms and stands were designed by the firm...
***
Design, because an architect such as Jean-François Bodin can only envisage
architectural engagement as a whole. For him, all is a matter of execution, right
down to the most infinitesimal detail of his interventions.
In this regard, the airport he realised in Toussus-le-Noble is an excellent example of
the completeness in which architecture, facilities, services, furnishings and
industrial design work in concert to achieve perfect operational efficiency and
harmony.
The same holds true for the fine hotels that bear his hallmark, Morgan’s in New
York, the domaine des Andéols in the Lubéron or the Casadelmar in Corsica, where
he demonstrates his amazing mastery of circulations, light, furnishings, accessories
and images.
This painstaking attention to detail and finishing so characteristic of the Bodin firm’s
work can be seen in its fine staircases, an essential yet far too often neglected
area. Those designed by Jean-François Bodin always manifest the rigour, elegance
and singularity that reflect the philosophy of the firm.
An ultimate area of expression which, naturally, remains private are homes,
whether flats or houses, newly created or restructured, that Bodin has designed
and realised for many artists, friends and clients.
***
2007 has been a most prosperous year indeed, with the Cité de l’Architecture et du
Patrimoine and the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany. Yet, on the horizon other
adventures are already coming into view. Two new museums, one dedicated to the
Comic Book in Angouleme and one to Goya in Castres.
And the impressive urbane design of the Darsena district in Milan, 10 hectares in
which Jean-François Bodin will be able to display his mastery of urban development
and the science of gardens.