Centre Pompidou-Metz, Art museum in Metz, France.
Centre Pompidou-Metz is an art museum in Metz, France, housing three exhibition galleries, a theater, and an auditorium beneath a white fiberglass membrane roof. The building stands on an open plaza and rises across several levels, with galleries of different sizes arranged under the curved roof structure.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the museum on May 12, 2010, after construction started in November 2006. It was the first decentralized national cultural institution in France, established outside Paris.
The rotating exhibitions draw from the French National Museum of Modern Art, which holds more than 100,000 works in its collection. Visitors walk through large galleries with different heights and light conditions, each space creating its own mood.
The museum opens Monday through Sunday except Tuesdays and May 1st, with extended weekend hours from April to October. Galleries are accessible by stairs and lifts, and visitors can move through the different levels to see the exhibitions.
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban designed the 77-meter-high structure with a roof inspired by a Chinese hat, made of glued laminated timber. The self-cleaning fiberglass material on the roof was originally developed for racing yacht sails and requires no regular maintenance.
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