Maison de la Pierre opens Galerie Rouge in former quarry near Paris

The Maison de la Pierre, a museum dedicated to stone craftsmanship in Saint-Maximin, France, inaugurated the Galerie Rouge on June 15, 2017. The new 500-square-meter underground gallery, set within a 16th-century quarry, will host contemporary art, digital art, and design, blending traditional stonemasonry with cutting-edge technologies like cybernetics and social networking. The opening features a permanent neon installation by French artist Christian Delécluse titled 'Inversion – l’encéphalogramme sismique de Marcel,' a 150-meter red light homage to Marcel Duchamp. The project was supported by the Région des Hauts de France and Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie, which has backed the site since 2007. The museum, which reopened in summer 2014 after a setback, saw visitor numbers rise from 9,000 to 20,000 by 2016 under director Annie Gondras. The Galerie Rouge will host the Festival Vibration Souterraine, a fully digital design event, in spring 2018.