Paris. A 53 m high crane dominates the roofs of the 14th arrondissement. Steel signal planted in the blue sky to orchestrate the transformation of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital at number 76 rue Denfert-Rochereau. Scaffolding eats up the floors of countless buildings under renovation spread over 60,000 square meters. Emergencies, nurseries, maternity wards, treatment rooms: everything is undergoing transformation. The crash of jackhammers and the staccato beep-beep of machines replace the ambulance sirens. A new district is taking shape at a cost of more than 43 million euros.
“It’s incredible to be associated with such a place, it’s hard to imagine because it’s so huge! “, enthuses Marine Van Schoonbeek, ponytail and sea green coat. She is the general director of Thanks for Nothing, an association co-founded in 2017 by a collective of women from the art world. The objective is to create bridges between contemporary creation and solidarity commitment.
With its project called “La Collective”, the association won the call for projects launched by the Paris City Hall in 2019, alongside the developer Cogedim, and has the luxury of beating the Giacometti Foundation, the big favorite, which will finally settle in the former Air France premises opposite the Alexandre-III bridge. “The City selected our application for its innovative character, an artistic project committed to the field, capable of having a real impact and opening up contemporary art to those who never open the door of a museum,” underlines the artistic director, Gaëlle Porte. For these fighting and idealistic women, art is a commitment that they carry out in collaboration with Emmaüs Solidarité, the Salvation Army, Aurore, the Women’s House or the Little Brothers of the Poor. While the association has been nomadic until now, this anchoring will allow it to perfect its action. “In addition to our raids to distribute basic necessities, poems and artistic materials, La Collective will become a relay point where the homeless can access these resources and meals,” adds Gaëlle Porte.
The first renovated buildings are already emerging from the wasteland like a promise. Smooth stones, luminous coatings, Marine Van Schoonbeek sweeps the site with her hand to point out a historic building made of limestone rubble, these stones typical of old hospitals. This is where Thanks for Nothing will set up part of its activities. “The chief architect of Historic Monuments François Chatillon, behind the renovation of the Louvre, will restore our building”, explains Marine Van Schoonbeek.
An exhibition space and emergency accommodation
By 2030, La Collective will extend over more than 3,500 m2 to become an important cultural facility on the left bank. “The developer Ogic, successor to Cogedim, is renovating the buildings that he will sell into housing and the City has imposed on him the creation of cultural spaces and activities with social and ecological aims in the bases and ground floors”, observes the former head of relations with collectors and institutions at the International Contemporary Art Fair (Fiac). In total, 40,200 square meters of housing, 50% of which is social housing.
Annex courtyard of the Oratory building.
© Elsewhere Studios
In the building under construction located on rue Denfert-Rochereau, the association will have an exhibition space of more than 500 m2 and space to house its offices. In the old building, a café and a bookstore will be open to the public and two studio apartments of 70 m2 each will welcome artists in residence. Without forgetting the emergency housing for refugees managed by Emmaüs. “Our operating budget has been estimated at 2 million euros, which allows us to create a team and a program,” continues Marine Van Schoonbeek. The association relies on three sources of income. A third will come from sponsors such as Maif or Société Générale; another third of it will be supplemented by state subsidies while the final third will be made up of own resources thanks to the rental of exhibition spaces and rent from the bookstore and café-restaurant. To this cultural ensemble will be added a concert hall with 400 seats and a theater hall with 100 seats.
However, the project almost failed. In 2019, architect Yves Dessuant worked with the Giacometti Foundation before becoming the association’s advisor. “When Cogedim withdrew from the project, everything was overhauled and La Collective thus lost its place, but the town hall of 14e borough required the new promoters in the running to integrate the project”, he recalls. In the end, it was Ogic which won the call for tenders with Thanks for Nothing, the only operator in place after the withdrawal of the La Loge association. The latter “had to manage the two performance halls, today the promoter is looking for a replacement, but the mission is proving complex in the face of particularly heavy rent”, explains Gaëlle Porte.
Evil for good
For Thanks for Nothing, the departure of Cogedim was positive. If the developer built the walls, he was required to take charge of the development. “An enormous weight, between 800,000 euros and one million euros, while after negotiation Ogic agreed to finance the work and invest the remaining sums,” adds the artistic director.
Passing by, rue Denfert-Rochereau, in front of the closed gates which protect two large courtyards, Marine Van Schoonbeek specifies: “They will be made available to us to organize exhibitions, educational workshops and film screenings! » Performances also like that of Lizette Chirrime who co-created a textile work with more than 200 participants from schools and associations, presented at the Center Pompidou in May 2025. “What interests us are international artistic practices where creators collaborate with a collective to create a common work,” argues the artistic director. But if things progress, the work to be accomplished remains titanic, if only from a financial point of view. Today, Thanks for Nothing has a capital of 400,000 euros, but for the opening of La Collective, the association will have to triple this amount…
