Ile Seguin To Host More Than Music

While one part of the Paris, France, island of Ile Segiun hosts the newly built 6,000-capacity La Seine Musicale, which will open in spring of this year, the other end of the island will see a contemporary arts center as well as a hotel be erected by 2021.   

AP Photo / Michel Euler – France Musical City Interior
Opening day of the new Auditorium at the La Seine Musicale is April 22 with a classical concert by the Insula Orchestra.

The island aims to become “one of the hubs of contemporary French culture” by 2021, according to france.fr. Even the 220-room hotel is meant to host works of art installed in each room.

Cinemas, restaurants, bars, design shops will be part of the offering too. The island hosted a Renault car plant between 1929 and 1992, and art exhibitions will include the Renault art collection, which comprises paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and more.

Opening the concert venue La Seine Musicale is Bob Dylan. The iconic singer/songwriter will play the first live music show on the Ile Seguin, April 21.

Dylan will play the venue’s 6,000-capacity concert hall, the Grande Seine. The official opening day is April 22, when the 1,150-cap Auditorium will be used for a classical concert for the first time, played by the venue’s resident Insula Orchestra.

Shigeru Ban designed the building, which cost euro 170m to construct. A time lapse video of the whole construction process can be viewed on the venue’s website at laseinemusicale.com.