LUXEMBOURG.- The Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Mudam, in Luxembourg, will open on 2nd July 2006. Chaired by Jacques Santer and directed by Marie-Claude Beaud, this new contemporary art venue will present a programme of temporary exhibitions open to all fields of present-day creation. Mudam is the first contemporary art museum in Luxembourg. Entirely conceived by artists, its vocation is to be attentive to international creation and developments in artistic practices.

The main concept of the artistic programme is called “Be the Artists’ Guest”. This gives artists carte blanche to think up and create works specific to the gallery’s various activities: collection, exhibition, auditorium, education, café, boutique, reception... This concept gathers new commissions of works for the museum‘s collection as well as making the temporary arrangements for collection pieces under the eye of an artist.

Entitled “Eldorado”, the opening exhibition presents, with the participation of over sixty artists, the result of more than five years of research and organization of the “Be the Artists’ Guest” programme. Works from the main collection and new productions are displayed in a rich panorama of contemporary creation: painting, sculpture, installation, sound, video, photography, design, graphic design, fashion, new media. The museum’s collection is devoted to contemporary art. It also includes major works on which the collection leans. In tune with today’s society, the artistic output encompasses the crossing of techniques, materials and meanings. At the museum’s opening, it counts more than 230 works by about a hundred international artists. Initiated in 1996 by the National Cultural Fund, acquisitions are presently leaning towards the younger generations of artists and are validated by a scientific committee. Pieces are displayed in temporary exhibitions organized through direct collaboration with guest curators. A selection of these works will be shown in the opening exhibition.

The building is the work of Sino-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei. It is situated on the Fort Thüngen site, in a park which was planned by Michel Desvigne, located between the city center and the European district (Kirchberg). The structure is in perfect harmony with the park’s natural fabric and history. Its layout follows the old fortification walls of Fort Thüngen on which the museum was erected. The building is characterized by great banks of windows and finishing touches of honey-colored limestone. With a total surface area of 10.000 m2, including almost 4.800 m2 of exhibition and public spaces over three levels, it houses, among other things, an auditorium, a boutique and a café. Building began in January 1999 with a budget of 88 million euros. The opening of Mudam is the result of an ambitious program of cultural infrastructures organized by Jacques Santer’s government in the 1980s, and prefigures the launching of “Luxembourg and Greater Region, Capital of Culture 2007”.