PARIS, FRANCE.-Musée Rodin reopens after renovation with the exhibition Sculpture in space, Rodin, Brancusi, Giacometti…, on view through February 26, 2006. On the exact date of the 88th anniversary of Rodin’s death, the museum that bears his name inaugurates the restructured and renovated chapel with the exhibition La sculpture dans l’espace, Rodin, Giacometti, Brancusi - Sculpture in space, Rodin, Giacometti, Brancusi. This is the second phase in the renovation works carried out on the museum, following the changes made in all the storage areas in Meudon. The chapel will now be able to host two temporary exhibitions per year. The gardens and the Biron mansion will be next on the list in the years to come. The private mansion will finally be completely dedicated to exhibit Rodin’s works.

The chapel has been restructured according to the drawings of Pierre-Louis Faloci, the project manager, totally respecting the original structure. The building has found brightness and logic in its organization by grouping all the offices together, offering a more pleasant reception area to the public and modernizing the temporary exposition room, that benefits from a spectacular use of the overhead, natural light. The mandate of the works was given to ICADE G3A, and a general construction company Pradeau Morin carried them out. The budget, 14 million euros all taxes included, was totally financed by the public authority.

When the Biron mansion was sold to the congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1820, one of the nuns’ first concerns was to build a chapel worthy of the name. Their wish finally came true in 1876. The chapel was built in two years by architect Jean Lisch (1828-1910) in a neo-gothic style, and was partly financed by the sale, in 1874, of certain wood panels of the Biron main house. A ministerial order dissolved the congregation on 10 July 1904, so the nuns hardly enjoyed their new church. When the Rodin museum opened in 1919, the nave was transformed into an exhibition room. Its tall roof was knocked down after World War II, thus giving it the “beheaded” aspect we have always known and which Pierre-Louis Faloci readjusted to its original shape.