Nicolas Surlapierre, director of a Mac/Val anchored in its territory

Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne). From the bay window of Nicolas Surlapierre’s office, the Mac/Val landscaped garden and its impeccable lawn let no guess the bustle of the two days sold. Only a man with a cat head planted in the middle of the lawn still smokes a cigarette (Large smokersAlain Séchas, 2007). The suburban museum celebrated its 20th anniversary on the weekend of June 14 and 15. Garden-Party attracted 1,500 people and “Very well passed”, Breath Nicolas Surlapierre, obviously happy that the party was a success. On Sunday, 900 visitors came to see the collections and the birthday exhibition, “Forever Young”, which brings together the works of twenty young artists (mostly born in the decade 1990-2000).

It has been three years since the former director of the Besançon museums took over from Alexia Fabre at the head of the establishment. It’s a bit early to take stock, not too late to form wishes. Fuchsia sweater, jeans and sneakers, juvenile silhouette, the 50 -year -old expresses three. “I want us to stay a local museum. Our audience comes for two thirds of Val-de-Marne, and in my eyes we have a public service mission. Then, I would like the Mac/Val to benefit from the flow of tourists drained by the capital. Finally, that it becomes a cultural benchmark in Greater Paris: a Grand Paris Express metro station must also open at 200 meters! »» In 2024, attendance, slightly increased compared to its avant-Cavid level, reached 58,000 admissions. The exhibition “Miscellaneous facts. A hypothesis in 26 letters, 5 equations and no response “, which presented the works of 80 artists (from Absalon to Cecilia Vicunã) and of which Nicolas Surlapierre himself assured the police station, constitutes one of his reasons for satisfaction. “I have been carrying this complex project for years. »» He attracted more than 26,000 people.

A place “where to spend the day”

“The Mac/Val is not a downtown museum. Our visitors, we have to go get them. But we have many advantages, in particular a quality of reception on which the entire salaried team ensures. I love the idea of the museum as a destination where to spend the day, between the collections, the exhibitions, the sculpture park, the restaurant … “ The director of Mac/Val targets 80,000 annual visitors in cruising pace, taking into account a new paradigm: the closure for work of the Pompidou center for five years from the start of the school year. Sometimes qualified as “Beaubourg de Banlieue” For its rich collection of 2,500 works and centered on the period from the 1950s to today, the Mac/Val could, according to him, benefit from a postponement of public. In any case, he will be a partner in November of the program outside the walls of the Center Pompidou, “Constellation”, with the exhibition in three chapters of Arnaud Labelle-Roujoux, “You see that! “, Scheduled from November 15, 2025 to February 15, 2026.

Nicolas Surlapierre always has his initial project in mind, which invited to “Think about the question of the heritage of contemporary art”. With a double challenge: not to devitalize creation, while giving benchmarks to the public, in particular in the hanging of permanent collections. “Propose a text by room, design a sequencing with chapters” : This art historian favors an educational approach, striving to avoid the pitfall of didacticism thanks to a touch of humor. Thus the new hanging, titled “the ideal genre”, he takes as a starting point a play on words while questioning the hierarchy of genres in theorized art in the 17th century by André Félibien, who placed history painting at his top. The new course of the collections thus walks the visitor from one section to another – “the goods” for the kind of still life, “people” for that of the portrait … – following a progression dictated by the scenography. With in conclusion, as at the end of a narration, an observation in filigree: if we have finished believing in history painting, it is because the notion of heroism is in decline. “For all kinds of reasons, the extremely demiurgic and authoritarian nature of speeches, including art or artists, is today subject to questioning”, Observe Nicolas Surlapierre. He defends for his part the right for the art of not being in fashion, or even daring to be “Outdated”.

His schedule of director is divided between administrative tasks, the scientific part and the relational, plus a “Fourth thirds” For everything else, as in the pastis recipe he suggests with malice, thus going from one Marcel to another, from Proust to Pagnol. Despite the workload, he claims to keep slots every week for visits to galleries or workshops, in order to stay in hand with art news. This is how he had a crush in an exhibition in a gallery for a key work by Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988), a missing link between surrealism and abstraction, submitted a year ago to the acquisition committee. This one, he explains, is responsible for not only strengthening the historical axes of the collection, but also to support creation (Nicolas Surlapierre welcomes as well as drawings by Véronique Hubert entered the museum), and finally, to complete new sets. The Mac/Val had for this until 2024 of an annual budget of 300,000 euros, a comfortable amount which melted this year at 50,000 euros. “The department, which finances us, is faced with a difficult period, and we had to participate in the collective effort”, Nicolas surlapierrre delay, who wants to believe that it is a parenthesis and not a rocking point. In the meantime, he has encouraged, in order to develop them, donations to the museum. The Mac/Val accepted about thirty in 2024. But the institution also has to face the explosion of its expenses, linked to inflation of 2022 and 2023.

This ultra-trail runner knows that a backdrop has moments of joy “And others where we are hard”. He therefore mobilizes the resources available, such as the increase in the ticket office, and account for the actual levers, for example by creating by the end of the year a company of friends. “It often surprises people when I say that the Mac/Val does not have it. »» He also wants to launch a circle of patrons, even if it appears necessary to dedicate a position to this objective. It will be necessary to wait, to hold until the crisis is absorbed, he imagines. He runs with his sister-professor of literature compared to the University of Haute-Alsace-and with his brother-in-law, swallowing a few tens of kilometers per week, without considering himself as an athlete. This modest light weight claims not to go to a very sustained pace, but is able to keep the very long distance. He finished last year the 100 kilometers of Millau, in 12 hours 45 minutes time: endurance, he knows.