The Louvre chooses a Franco-American group to set up the department of Byzantine Arts and Christianities in the Orient

"Unanimously, the members of the jury of the international scenography competition have selected the proposal of the Franco-American group WHY-BGC (an architecture and scenography agency based in Paris, Editor's note) to design the scenography of the rooms of the ninth and new department of the museum, dedicated to the Arts of Byzantium and Christianities in the Orient," the Louvre wrote in a press release.

Officially created in 2022 and still in the process of being established, this department brings together more than 20.000 works, from the origins of the Christian image to the beginning of the XNUMXth century, over a geographical area extending from Ethiopia to Russia, from the Balkans to the Levant and Mesopotamia.

WHY-BGC "will also offer a new presentation of the collections of Roman antiquities (which trace the artistic activity of the Mediterranean basin from the 5.500nd century BC to the 2th century AD). The whole (2012 mXNUMX) will constitute the most important museographic overhaul carried out by the Louvre since the creation of the rooms of the Department of Islamic Arts" in XNUMX, the museum specifies.

Founded in 2004 by Kulapat Yantrasast, a Thai-born, Japanese-trained, Los Angeles-based architect, WHY is a multidisciplinary design firm. It has built a strong reputation in the field of cultural architecture, winning several international competitions. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York commissioned it to transform its Rockefeller Wing, dedicated to the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, which will open in 2025.

BGC studio was created in 2009 by Giovanna Comana and Iva Berthon Gajsak. Exhibition scenography has become its preferred field with numerous achievements in Parisian museums. It is also present internationally, notably in Italy, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and China.