Contemporary Art at the Louvre: A Conversation Between Artist Elias Crespin and Louvre Exhibition Manager Martin Kiefer

American Friends of the Louvre and the National Arts Club were pleased to invite you to a conversation about contemporary art in the Louvre. Martin Kiefer highlighted the permanent contemporary artworks in the Louvre, focusing on the most recent commission by Elias Crespin, who created a  kinetic work in the classical Escalier du Midi, L’Onde du Midi. Crespin described this exciting challenge and the beautiful result at the heart of the museum.

Born in Venezuela in 1965, Elias Crespin studied computer engineering in Caracas. Son of mathematicians and grandson of artists, his approach brings together these two personal universes, science and art. He started working on his first creation—Malla Electrocinética I—in 2002, finishing and exhibiting the piece in 2004 after two years of research. The artist’s mobile sculptures have since entered prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, El Museo del Barrio in New York and the MALBA in Buenos Aires. In 2018, Crespin displayed his work at the Grand Palais in the exhibition titled “Artists & Robots,” unveiling his piece Grand HexaNet. The artist has been living and working in Paris since 2008, where he is represented by the Denise René Gallery.

Martin Kiefer has been exhibition manager at the Louvre for 14 years and has been in charge of contemporary art projects at the Louvre for the last five years. L’Onde du midi by Elias Crespin was the last contemporary artwork installed before the pandemic hit.