Musée des Beaux-Arts

Lyon’s Musée des Beaux-Arts stands on the site of the Abbaye des Dames de Saint-Pierre, founded here in the 10th century. The present buildings date from the 17th century. They housed a community of Benedictine nuns until the French Revolution. In 1802, the building reopened as the home of the City’s Museum of Fine Art, created in 1801.
The garden occupies the old monastic cloister and was remodelled several times over the course of the 19th century, since when it has been a setting for numerous works of art, from copies of celebrated Antique works to pieces by Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle, and contemporary installations such as Claudio Parmiggiano’s Terra, buried here in 1989. From an enclosed nunnery to a place where once inaccessible treasures became available to the public, the diverse functions of this location are reflective of various objectives. It it is in itself a work of art. Once would like to interview about its memories, its witnessing of the world, its resilience, and its take on time, impermanence, and fragility.