The MINERVE project: the museum of tomorrow
By 2030, a major extension and transformation programme will have provided the Museum with 4 new permanent itineraries: the MINERVE project.
On course for tomorrow’s Museum (2022-2030)
A major component of the Musée de l’Armée’s new Scientific and Cultural Project, the MINERVE extension and transformation project aims to enrich the Museum’s cultural offer by opening new permanent exhibition areas, improve visitor reception conditions and comfort, and reconfigure its logistics areas.
True to its civic vocation, the Musée de l'Armée aspires to become France’s museum of world history from the angle of military life and war.
Firmly anchored in its century, it will take a comprehensive, decompartmentalised approach, paying close attention to our country’s connections and interactions with the world
A new approach to military history
Military history, history in motion
Military history is one of the cornerstones of France’s history as a whole. War is history in action, through extreme situations in which human nature is revealed to the full.
It is also history in motion, with conflicts that can change its course all too easily.
Fundamentally human, history made incarnate, sometimes glorified and often harrowing, these days military history is considered in terms of its political, social, cultural, geographic and economic realities.
Hence, it opens up new avenues for reflection that the Musée de l'Armée is eager to explore.
Opening the gates of history
The MINERVE project is set to be completed in 2030. As a museum of history, science and technology, fine arts and society all in one, the institution aims to make a critical examination of history by taking a civic, heritage approach to its subject.
It is also determined to create and maintain ever closer ties between its museological approach, and the questions raised by its visitors and its era, to which history may well be able to provide some of the answers.
The history of the world, the history of the Other
Mindful of the question of its social and public utility, the Musée de l'Armée focuses on military action in order to take visitors on a journey into a globalised history of France that gives full recognition to Otherness.
A subject that has been much studied, the Other is considered as actor and stakeholder in a shared history.
The Museum’s civic vocation, its determination to provide all sectors of the public with the keys to understanding the state of the world and its evolution, to make the connection between past and present, is central to its transformation project.
Hence, the institution is working to reintegrate divided memories into the national narrative and reappropriate a common, sometimes confrontational past.
Creation of four new visit itineraries
The Hôtel des Invalides, between history and memories
This itinerary will trace the history of Les Invalides and the creation of the Museum’s collections through a series of emblematic works (including the scale model of the Hôtel Royal des Invalides, and the tapestry cartoon painted by Pierre Dulin in 1710, depicting the foundation of Les Invalides by Louis XIV), along with immersive editorialised areas providing new angles from which to approach the subject. A veteran witness to the institution’s construction site, the scale model was created around 1690, making it more than 330 years old. In December 2022, it will be sent off for restoration for the first time since 1838. It will be one of the future itinerary’s essential, structuring items, welcoming visitors at the entrance to the Salle Vauban.
The “Hôtel des Invalides, between history and memories” itinerary is also set to provide visitors with an innovative immersive experience, to be located in the last room in the Corridor de Valenciennes. Although the Museum has long incorporated complete educational multimedia systems into its itineraries, the content in this area will be markedly different as it will be in the form of a performance, focusing on aesthetic aspects and created by a team of artists.
France’s armed forces and military engagements
This new itinerary will help visitors understand the French army’s present-day organisation and missions through topics of current interest, giving pride of place to multimedia and audiovisual tools.
By doing so, and in line with its civic vocation, the Museum intends to provide present generations with the means to decipher sometimes complex current states of affairs.
After 1945: from the Cold War to the present day
This new itinerary will address a range of post-war themes, including the East/West confrontation, the Berlin Wall and its fall, conflicts resulting from the Cold War and its aftermath, nuclear deterrence, and France’s defence industry and rearmament, along with such crosscutting themes as pacifism, antimilitarism, espionage and terrorism.
Colonisation, decolonisation: a shared history
The new itinerary will cover this sensitive aspect of history over the long term, from the 16th century to 1960, so as to help visitors understand the way in which colonisation structured our societies and its consequences on our contemporary world.
The project’s stakeholders
- Contracting Authority: Musée de l'Armée
- Delegated Contracting Authority: Heritage and Cultural Real-Estate Project Operator (OPPIC)
- Project Manager: Antoine Dufour - Architectes
The MINERVE project in figures
- 11,636 m2 concerned by the work to be carried out
- 8 years of work, during which the Museum will remain open to the public
- 8 in-house working groups involved
In 2030
- + 3,000 m2 of extra surface area open to visitors
- 16,436 m2 of visit itineraries
- 18,500 objects exhibited (+ 25%)
- 4 new visit itineraries
- 2,750 m2 more surface area dedicated to reserve collections
Project schedule
2022-2030, a 2-phase project:
- 2022 - 2024: reconfiguration of reception areas and creation of the “Hôtel des Invalides, between history and memories” itinerary
- 2025 - 2030: creation of the three other itineraries and layout of logistics areas.