Nicolas Bourriaud, director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris since 2011, was abruptly fired Wednesday 1 July by the French minister of culture Fleur Pellerin after a 45 min-long meeting, Le Figaro reports. Pellerin claimed the decision was part of a new wider pedagogical project, but Bourriaud deplored on his Facebook account ‘not a single factual argument [was provided] in the course of the discussion’.
The weekly satirical Canard Enchaîné created controversy claiming Bourriaud’s dismissal was a nepotistic act, in order to replace him with Eric de Chassey, the current director of the Villa Medicis in Rome. Canard Enchaîné alleged, claiming anonymous sources but without providing any real concrete evidence, the decision was orchestrated by President François Hollande’s companion, the French actress Julie Gayet, whose friend Anne Consigny is married to de Chassey.
3 July 2015.
