Didier Fusillier has been named the new president of Paris’s Grand Palais, the vast, historic glass-and-steel complex of exhibition spaces overseen by the French government body Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais (RMN-GP).
Fusillier will be succeeding Chris Dercon who left the position last October to head the Fondation Cartier in Paris. A governmental cultural body in France, Rmn-GP runs Grand Palais Paris and the Musée du Luxembourg and collaborates with around 20 other institutions in the country’s cultural sector.
Fusillier was previously president of the Public Establishment of the Park and the Great Hall of La Villette, a role he first took on in 2015 and again in 2020. Before that, Fusillier was the longtime director of the Maison des arts de Créteil (MAC), where he founded Lille 3000, a citywide arts triennial.
Fusillier is also expected to supervise the restoration of the Grand Palais in anticipation of the 2024 Olympic Games. Additionally, he will collaborate with the Centre Pompidou, as some of the Centre’s exhibits will be temporarily housed in Grand Palais’s national galleries while the Beaubourg main site of Pompidou is being renovated between 2025 and 2030.
