European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 27, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Celebrates 10 years by Paul Lewis new York times of tics Pompidou banker politician Art Lover and president &1 France did nol live to soc Lite modern Art and culture Center in he Middle of Paris thai boars his name Bui when to first saw a Model of Iho timing design in 1971. His immediate comment was this will make them  and soil did Tho immense futuristic building covered with a Langla of brightly coloured pipes and duct was criticized by Many As an act of vandalism against one of i he oldest quarters of Paris and variously compared to 0 balls ship run aground or an Oil Renner. By his year As of e Pompidou Center celebrates the 10th Anav Isary of its opening on Jim 31,1977, France is feeling proud of this unusual Gaudy building and is pleased Wilh Tho contribution it has made to Art and life in the capital and the country. To Mark its lies decade a whole year of celebrations is planned with special exhibitions and performances of works commissioned for the anniversary. President Francois Mitterrand recently visited it and inaugurated a clock that resembles a soccer goalpost and shows the number of seconds left until the end of Tho Century in the 400 millions. A nation must Orient i s gaze toward the future to president said suggesting that the Center and ils new clock would help keep France looking in Iho Riffil Dirc Clion. Then Francois Leotard the culture minister gave the Center a $7.5 million birthday present to remodel and expand the exhibition space and in peril Ninta music Institute. The Pompidou Center is the world s most original museum Leotard said like the louvre the Pompidou Center is entirely government financed but As a museum of Modem Art beginning Wilh Early 20th Century work in does not often the unparalleled Visla Olad of All centuries Lor which the Souvie is known throughout to wild. The Pompidou Center is unlike the louvre also in i hat in is much More than a museum and tar Mora visited. Many claims arc being made for the Center in this anniversary year. The museum s director Jean Lut Aheu believes Ifie Center has opened French Oyes to the wider shores of Contemp Ofay Art. Introducing such american painters As Jar son Pollock Traugh is permanent colled Ion and bringing in contemporary work from Japan. Vienna the soviet Union and elsewhere to special exhibitions. Michel Guy. A former Secretary of stale for culture said the Center s Success had encouraged a now interest in contemporary Art and culture throughout a srm photo futuristic cultural supermarket has become a Paris landmark. La it year it attracted 7 million visitor. France citing recently opened museums and Art centers in Nimes and Avignon. But what has caught the imagination of Iho average Frenchman is the fact that the Pompidou Center appears to to the most frequently visited Monument in the world drawing some 7 million visitors last year which puts in ahead of the e Iffet Tower 4 1 million. The Hermitage in Leningrad 4.2 Millionth acropolis t ,5 million and new York s museum of modern Art 1.3 million. The most optimistic forecast gave us 7,000 visitors a Day when to opened Maheu said but we be averaged 24,000 a Day Over Tho last 10  and in a Way the Pompidou Center s popularity is not surprising because in is much More than a modern Art museum. Al is a kind of cultural supermarket an Emporium of intellectual services often taken Lor granted in other countries bul which were barely available in France before the Center. Few foreign visitors realize for Oslance. Hal the single most popular attraction in the Center is its free Public Library the first in France where anyone can walk in Lake a Book off the shelves and read it at a Well lighted desk without any administrative Orma lilies the Library i Sef accounts or half Lite Center s visitors we Are catching up on the Anglo Saxon countries in Library service at last Maheu said. The Pompidou Center also provides a free newspaper Reading room Wilh French and foreign journals. There Are language laboratories a film museum video machines thai show films about recent history As Well As a room where people listen to recordings through earphones. Visitors to the Center this year can see special exhibits and Perlor Mancos marking the Center s 10th birthday unfortunately the huge space known As the forum which makes up the Center s ground floor is no longer As freely open to the world at targe As the designers hoped. There is no Entrance to for Tho Center itself though there May be a fee or individual exhibitions. Onco inside visitors find 2,000 Square Leet of ceiling space occupied by a suspended half Globe of shimmering while and yellow rods a work by the venezuelan sculptor Raphael Soto that was commissioned Lor i lie anniversary. Until March 16, the forum Aroa also contains an exhibit Ion Aboul the people who visit Iho censer called the visitor Sundh a double another Aboul the building s construction and a display of posters from Pas exhibitions. From april 15 to May 24, Tho censer will show works by Young contemporary French american Canadian Page 14 the stars and stripes and Othor artists selected by supporters associations around the world. An exhibition devoted to the modern movement since the censer opened runsfrommay7loaug.i7. Another exhibition entitled nou Vollus Tendance will try to anticipate Tho stylistic Stimato of the year 2000 through the work of designers Al is and architects including Ron Arad Hans Hollym and David Nixon. It runs irom april 15 to sep 7 the musical research Center buried under Tho mechanical fountains to the South of the main building also plans several anniversary presentations including a new opera called Val a by Tod Machover and Catherine Imam and the first Perlof Mances of six other specially commissioned works by now composers under the age of 40 during april and May. The Pompidou Center has also become one of the finest free Vantage Points available far viewing Paris. The escalators that Snake up the outside of the building in plastic lubes Oiler visitors panoramic views across the City As they Are wis cd up to Tho higher doors where special exhibitions and the permanent collection Aie housed. The Laller has grown to More than 17.000 works and the acquisition budget this year is Aboul m million. Some works have escaped the Center s grasp we will never have Picasso s Demoiselles d Avignon " Maheu lamented. But to is pleased with the Center s live major Jackson pollocks and its collection of works by Malisse Braque and Kandinsky. Alter an intense debate the censer has decided to Divide the huge open space on the ourth Koor where the permanent celled Ion is displayed to create interconnecting rooms with the pictures on the waifs. The decision was difficult because is just plication Tor Iho building s unusual appearance Wilh All supports and pipes on he outside was to create As much open space inside As possible. But the Glass outer Walls still Crealo a sense of airiness and Light so that the exhibition space seems to float above the City. Outside on the balconies giant pieces of modern sculpture stand silhouetted against the sky. On lop of the Center the visitor also gets a panoramic View of what Many consider the Center s most striking contribution to this part of pans on a warm Day the Esplanade surrounding the building is transformed into a medieval Fairground where lire eaters escape artists Downs and musicians vie for the visitor s attention and francs hamburger places with unfamiliar names Sulci As free time and Quick Edge the Square and thousands of people just Mill about in this big in endly space watching the huge coloured Menai building that dominates in Friday feb