The Musée Rodin Signs a Major Deal to Create a Satellite Museum in China’s Technology Capital

Paris’s Musée Rodin has announced that its Chinese outpost will
be in Shenzhen, the nearest mainland city to Hong Kong. The
decision to team up with the Chinese government to open an Asian
satellite while authorities threaten to crack down on the
pro-democracy movement over the border is bound to raise
eyebrows.

The news that the Paris institution dedicated to the famous
sculptor Auguste Rodin, which is partly funded by the French state,
is expanding in China was announced yesterday, October 7, during a
Franco-Chinese cultural forum in the city of Nice.

The full cost and possible opening date of the Musée Rodin China
have not been revealed but the museum says that more details will
emerge during President Emmanuel Macron’s planned trip to China
next month. The decision to move forward on the project, which
was first floated last June, comes after officials at the Paris
museum toured potential cities searching for an outpost. Besides
Shenzhen in the Guangdong province, they had visited Hangzhou in
Zhejiang province, and Xiong’an New Area in Hebei province.

“Shenzhen seemed to us to be the one with the most important
assets: a political will in favour of culture and education, 
very professional and efficient teams, both in the city and in the
Futian district, and a multicultural character and diversity of
ethnic groups,” the Paris institution wrote to artnet News in a
statement. It added that the proposed place on Antuoshan hill in
Shenzhen recalls the hill Rodin lived in Meudon (the site of their
second location).

The China expansion was the brainchild of Wu Jing, a Chinese
collector and the founder of the European Art Museum in Hangzhou.
Wu is set to be the director of the Rodin Shenzhen satellite.

The museum says that, back in June when the project was first in
the works, it was “cautious.” However, following the guarantee
provided by the Chinese ministry of culture as well as the Chinese
embassy in France, the Musée Rodin gave a green light to the
project and will loan more than 100
pieces by Rodin, including many of iconic works,
like The Gates of Hell, The Age of Bronze,
and Balzac. Previously, it had been reported
that the Chinese sister site will exhibit the works for six
years.

Chevillot revealed that, as well as Rodin’s work, three
international artists have been invited to create new work for the
museum: Chinese painter Li Xin, Jean-Paul Marcheschi from France,
and Barthélémy Toguo from Cameroon. Each will create
site-specific works to fill space at the Chinese location
where art had been removed and sold during the 19th century. The
commissions could be responses to Chinese treasures looted by
Europeans during the colonial era. (AFP reports the
commissions will include medallions.)

The planned museum will no doubt highlight Rodin’s interest in
Chinese art, which he collected. He also inspired significant
Chinese sculptors, including Sui Jianguo.

French Expansion in China

France is at the forefront of Western museums’ expansion in
China. The Centre Pompidou is set to finally open a satellite in
Shanghai after years of trying on November 8. And Shenzhen is
already home to a design museum created in partnership with the
Victorian and Albert Museum in London.

The Musée Rodin was founded to house a collection that Rodin
donated to the French state after his death. It includes his own
sculptures and drawings, as well as work produced by his
contemporaries. As well as the Musée Rodin in central Paris,
the artist’s country home in Meudon is also a museum. The two
venues attract around 700,000 visitors a year.

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Satellite Museum in China’s Technology Capital appeared first
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