2021: A SECOND YEAR OF ADAPTATION 2021, the second year of the pandemic, saw cultural venues closed until May. Adapting to constraints and devising new cultural practices were constant challenges last year. The project created by the choreographer Boris Charmatz and the company [terrain], invited by the Réunion des musées nationaux Grand Palais and given carte blanche before the temporary closure of the Grand Palais, was emblematic of this approach constantly altered and even reinvented to comply with ever-changing public health rules. As such La Ronde, a performance by 20 duets that followed on from one another for 12 hours in the Nave of a Grand Palais blanketed in snow, took place behind closed doors and was filmed in order to be broadcast on France 5, a pared-back approach necessitated by circumstances. A few months after these duets, a crowd of socially-distanced individuals came together for the project Happening Tempête: this time, to mark the opening of the Grand Palais Éphémère, Boris Charmatz created a storm of bodies in which enthusiasts, professionals, associations and the general public could finally meet again. Employees of the Rmn Grand Palais and CHANEL were among the dancers who took part in the performance.

From winter to spring: reuniting with the public The second key event of 2021, following the closure of the Grand Palais for a four-year renovation project, saw the Rmn Grand Palais moving to new premises, for which it had to create hybrid, unique projects. Outside the walls of the museum, our programme brought different disciplines together and targeted new audiences. At the Grande Halle de La Villette, the exhibition Napoleon, organised to mark the bicentenary of his death and open from May to December 2021, was popular among families and history enthusiasts among the general public, attracting a host of visitors from outside Paris. At the Musée du Luxembourg, women artists, often left out of a history of art written by men, took centre stage. In spring, the fascinating exhibition Women Painters, 1780 1830 shone a light on a period of emancipation and freedom and paved the way for the 2022 exhibition Pioneers. Women Artists In The Paris Of The Roaring Twenties. In autumn, the photographer Vivian Maier was given pride of place. Discovered after her death, she spent her entire life working as a governess while also taking thousands of pictures, the modernity and social scope of which astounded the 212,000 visitors who came to see the exhibition. Organised as part of the Paris l été Festival, the show Société en chantier at the Grand Palais Éphémère echoed the renovations of the Grand Palais on the other side of the Seine as well as offering a demonstration of participative theatre, sparking discussions of a theme that is all too rarely addressed: the reality of working in the building. The first exhibition organised by the Rmn Grand Palais at the Grand Palais Éphémère followed an unusual format adapted to the dimensions of the building, inviting the artist Anselm Kiefer to install a gigantic studio on the Champ-de- Mars, where his works, displayed without picture rails, appeared to float under the blue vault of Wilmotte s architecture and paid a vibrant tribute to the poet Paul Celan. On the cusp of the French Presidency of the European Union

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