Toulouse. This unmissable cultural place in the city center will be enlarged, related studies
Through Anthony Assemat
Published on
It’s no secret that the Toulouse Cinémathèque is cramped in rue du Taur. And this for several years. After having studied a move to the Cartoucherie for a while, the Toulouse town hall abandoned this track by mutual agreement with the management of the place, and the common desire was then to stay in the city center and expand.
A first retouched project
The two parties first worked on an extension that would have eaten up the space of the courtyard. A project also abandoned, the Cinémathèque not wanting to hear about it and the Architect of the buildings of France (ABF) having “formally forbidden to make an extension on the courtyard”, indicates the town hall. At the end of October 2020, Francis Grass, deputy mayor responsible for coordinating cultural policies, had put forward “technical and conceptual reasons” to explain this aborted project, “despite the will of the State, the National Cinema Center, the Department, of the Region and of the City of Toulouse ”.
Related studies this summer
“The extension of the Cinémathèque is still in the works”, confirms Francis Grass to Toulouse news. “We have relaunched studies this summer,” confirms Pierre Esplugas, deputy mayor in charge, among other things, of image and cinema.
“Dead end at one point”
The stakes are high for the second Cinémathèque de France: create another projection room to strengthen the attractiveness of the place and boost artistic proposals and meetings.
Currently, the large hall has a capacity of 196 seats, and the second a capacity of 39 seats. “This second big hall is a necessity for us because we are forced to make choices when we prepare each season. We differ with two rooms. In any case, we will be deadlocked at some point, ”warns Franck Loiret, the deputy director of the Cinémathèque.
Move the administrative part but …
The current project of move the administrative part of the Cinémathèque to offices located rue du Taur. Problem: these premises, located nearby, are occupied by 50 to 70 people from the services of the cultural team of the town hall … “We are looking at which solution may be suitable”, explains Pierre Esplugas.
But where to find the space, inside, to enlarge the temple of cinema? “The library, the offices… Several existing possibilities, several schemes are being studied,” says Francis Grass. The town hall and the Cinémathèque have the common ambition to also improve the conditions of reception of the public, in particular in the hall, where is currently held the exhibition on the company TAT Productions.
Two files in front
The Cinémathèque is running two issues at the same time. In addition to the historic site of rue du Taur, Franck Loiret is working on the extension of the building of the archives conservation center, located at Balma (Upper Garonne) since 2004.
“In our mind, the two projects go hand in hand,” he says. He continues: “In Balma, we are on an extension of 600 m2 with the creation of a new building behind the first. This is the most urgent for us, we can no longer accommodate film deposits ”.
This building will house new storage spaces for film and non-film and spaces dedicated to digitization and restoration activities.
“Balma’s reserves are saturated”
“The rue du Taur project and that of Balma, where we are working with the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne (the land belongs to the Department, editor’s note), are retained in principle. Balma’s reserves have effectively been saturated for quite some time, ”explains Francis Grass.
On the side of the Departmental Council, it is indicated that it was agreed “that the signatories (the CNC, the town hall of Toulouse, the Occitanie Region and the Departmental Council) participate equally in the financing of this work on the two sites”.
The 2020 results in figures
The 2020-2021 season has obviously been black for culture lovers. And attendance has been felt. The place welcomed 40,652 spectators against 86,756 in 2019 during the last full season. Half the number of sessions were scheduled (416 versus 902).
On the other hand, the year 2020 was used to boost the inventory of copies. Franck Loiret indicated that “53,773 copies have been inventoried, or 770 more compared to 2019”.
The Cinémathèque has 100,000 film posters in its stocks, ie 558 more.
The first Provincial Cinematheque also stores 600,000 photos (+130).
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