Musée de la musique

Temporary exhibitions

The Musée de la Musique produces one or two temporary exhibitions each season, which then often travel to other countries.

The exhibitions present a broad variety of subjects, open to all cultures and restoring ties with other arts, from the Middle Ages to today.

Currently

Gainsbourg 2008

21^st October 2008 to 15^th March 2009

Visit the exhibition's site

The Musée de la musique is dedicating an exhibition to Serge Gainsbourg at a time when he is becoming globally popular. While contemporary pop musicians in London and New York are rediscovering the French artist’s poetic and melodic talents, Tokyo is seeing a veritable “gainsbourgmania”, with artists mixing and sampling his compositions.

Breaking with tradition, this exhibition - installation is a tribute by one of today’s artists to one of the greatest French musical personalities of the 20th century.

Painter, writer, poet, author, singer, composer, actor and director, Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) was an artist who, throughout his life, used images, and his own in particular, in all their forms, creating an aesthetic world which broke down the walls between “major” and “minor” arts.

The exhibition highlights the various aspects of his multi-faceted work, since Gainsbourg acted as a catalyst of the times he lived in, as did David Bowie in England and Bob Dylan in the United States.
He was always ahead of his time: his writing, compositions, collaborations, aesthetic orientations and even his private life often preceded and influenced the evolution of mores and artistic and cultural movements.

With Gainsbourg, sampling, mixing, remixing, borrowing, citation, self-quotations and diversions dominated, foreshadowing the images and sounds of today’s culture.

Curator: Frédéric Sanchez

In partnership with Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina)

Partners of the exhibition Gainsbourg 2008

Opening hours

Tuesday to Thursday, 12.00 PM to 6.00 PM
Friday and Saturday, 12.00 PM to 10.00 PM
Sunday from 10.00 AM to 6.00 PM
Open until 8.00 PM during Les années Gainsbourg concerts (22 to 28 October and 21 February)

Reserve your tickets now

Coming soon

We Want Miles

16 October 2009 to 17 January 2010

Organised with the support of Miles Davis Properties, this exhibition by the Cité de la Musique follows Miles Davis’ musical and personal journey, from his hometown, East St-Louis, to his retrospective concert at La Villette in Paris, just a few weeks before his death.

Beginning in the mid Sixties, Miles Davis began printing “Directions in Music by Miles Davis” on his albums, rather than just his name.
As a tribute to his visionary approach, visitors can discover each of these “directions” along a pathway displaying photographs taken by the biggest names in musical photography, video excerpts from his concerts, instruments he or his travel companions played, rare scores and stage costumes, documents related to the creation of his albums, original releases of his great records, as well as works of art, paintings and sculptures, testifying to an aura which vastly exceeded the sphere of music.

Curator: Vincent Bessières