Art and industrial heritage: exhibiting in warehouses and factories

01The power of industrial volumes

The primary asset of industrial spaces lies in their dimensions. Ceiling heights of eight, ten or fifteen metres, floor areas of several hundred or thousand square metres, structural spans without intermediate columns create volumes in which contemporary artworks find a breathing space impossible to achieve in a city-centre commercial unit. Large installations, monumental sculptures and immersive works that characterise a growing proportion of current artistic production require spaces commensurate with their scale.

The Pinault Foundation, housed in the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, illustrates this dialogue between architectural heritage and contemporary art, even though the building is not strictly industrial. The Palais de Tokyo, however, housed in a utilitarian 1930s building whose raw spaces have been preserved, demonstrates how architectural roughness can serve contemporary art. Tate Modern in London, installed in the former Bankside Power Station designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, remains the world reference for industrial conversion in the service of art. Its Turbine Hall, an immense nave of 3,400 square metres and 35 metres in height, hosts an annual monumental commission that would be physically impossible in a conventional museum.

02Pioneer galleries of conversion

In France, the trend has been driven by visionary players. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac opened a 4,700 square metre space in 2012 in a former factory in Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris. This venue, which retains its industrial structure with steel beams, sawtooth roofs and concrete floors, allows the presentation of monumental works by artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz and Robert Rauschenberg under optimal conditions. The choice of Pantin, then perceived as peripheral, proved prescient: the area has become a major artistic hub now attracting galleries, artist studios and cultural institutions.

Galerie Perrotin has followed a comparable trajectory by investing in large-scale spaces in various cities around the world. In Paris, its Marais premises occupy a complex of buildings whose volumes allow ambitious installations. Kamel Mennour has developed two Parisian spaces, one of which, on rue du Pont de Lodi, offers generous volumes suited to installations and large-format works.

Abroad, the phenomenon is even more pronounced. Hauser and Wirth transformed an eighteenth-century farm in Somerset into an internationally renowned art centre, and its Los Angeles space occupies a former industrial milling complex. Pace Gallery opened a monumental space in Chelsea, New York, designed by Bonetti Kozerski in a building that embraces a contemporary industrial aesthetic. In Berlin, the gallery scene historically developed in the industrial wastelands of the former eastern zone, notably in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood and around Potsdamer Strasse.

03The economic advantages of the brownfield site

Beyond the aesthetic argument, industrial spaces offer considerable economic advantages. The cost per square metre of an industrial brownfield on the city outskirts is significantly lower than that of a commercial premises in the city centre. A dealer renting 200 square metres in the Marais in Paris can, for a comparable or lower budget, have 800 or 1,000 square metres in a former warehouse in Pantin, Ivry-sur-Seine or Romainville. This economic equation allows artists to be offered exceptional presentation conditions while controlling the fixed costs that weigh on the gallery's business model.

Converting a brownfield site does, however, require initial investments that should not be underestimated. Safety compliance, thermal insulation, professional lighting, acoustic treatment, disability access and compliance with regulations for premises receiving the public represent significant budget items. The dealer considering an industrial space must plan for a construction phase whose duration and cost depend on the building's initial condition and the project's ambition.

Some municipalities encourage these conversions by offering favourable leases, subsidies or technical support. Urban revitalisation policies increasingly incorporate the cultural dimension, and the presence of a gallery in an industrial brownfield can serve as an argument in negotiations with local authorities. The dealer who establishes themselves in a changing neighbourhood becomes an actor in urban transformation, which can earn them valuable institutional support.

04Scenography as dialogue with the space

Exhibiting in an industrial space demands specific scenographic work. The white cube offers a neutrality that facilitates the presentation of any work, regardless of its nature. The industrial space, by contrast, possesses a strong personality — traces of past activity, raw materials, zenithal or lateral natural light, architectural irregularities — that dialogues with the works and can, depending on the case, magnify or overwhelm them. The dealer who chooses such a space must develop a scenographic sensitivity that accounts for this architectural presence.

Certain works gain considerably from being presented in an industrial context. Installations by Anish Kapoor, whose monumental dimensions demand large volumes, find in industrial naves a setting equal to their scale. Richard Serra's steel works, presented in spaces whose metal structures echo their material, acquire a resonance the white cube does not allow. Light installations by Dan Flavin or the neons of Francois Morellet dialogue with metal structures and concrete surfaces in ways that enrich their perception.

Other works, more intimate, more fragile, more subtle in their effects, may find themselves diminished by the power of the space. A small pencil drawing, a delicate watercolour, a small-format photograph risks disappearing in a thousand-square-metre warehouse. The astute dealer knows how to create spaces within the space — alcoves, temporary partitions, zones of intimacy — that allow scales to vary and offer visitors a contrasting journey between spectacular halls and more confidential recesses.

05The territorial dimension

The installation of a gallery in an industrial space often fits within a territorial logic that extends beyond the simple property question. Industrial brownfields are generally located in transitional neighbourhoods — former production zones converted into creative districts — where the art gallery plays a role as cultural catalyst. The arrival of a gallery attracts other cultural actors, artist studios, cafes, bookshops and creative offices that progressively transform the urban fabric.

The Pantin district in Seine-Saint-Denis perfectly illustrates this dynamic. The establishment of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, followed by other galleries and the Fondation Fiminco, has helped make this area a recognised artistic hub that now attracts a public that would never have ventured to the suburbs to see contemporary art. In Romainville, the Magasins generaux project has created a creative campus in former warehouses combining galleries, workspaces and social venues.

At the European level, the phenomenon recurs in many cities. In Brussels, the Molenbeek canal district hosts galleries and art spaces in former industrial buildings. In Milan, the Tortona district, a former manufacturing zone, has become a leading destination for design and contemporary art. In Athens, the Metaxourgio neighbourhood, the city's former industrial centre, is seeing galleries and art spaces move in, benefiting from still-affordable rents and available volumes.

06Preserving the memory of the place

One of the major challenges of establishing a gallery in an industrial space is the relationship with the memory of the place. A former mechanical workshop, a textile factory, a goods warehouse carry within them a history that should not be erased by conversion. The most sensitive dealers deliberately preserve traces of past activity — wall inscriptions, machinery, floor markings, exposed structures — that create a temporal layering enriching the visitor's experience.

This preservation of industrial memory is not merely an aesthetic concern. It constitutes a form of responsibility towards the history of the place and the people who worked there. In a context of often rapid gentrification, the dealer who establishes themselves in a brownfield occupies an ambiguous position: they contribute to the cultural enhancement of the neighbourhood but also potentially participate in the increase in property values that may eventually displace original residents and activities. This tension, which the dealer cannot always resolve, deserves to be taken into account in the conversion project.

07An expanding model

The trend towards establishing galleries in industrial spaces shows no sign of slowing. The economic pressures weighing on galleries in city centres — rising rents, shrinking available space, competition from luxury brands and retail chains — push a growing number of dealers to seek alternatives in urban peripheries and conversion zones. Artists themselves, who often need large-dimension studios to produce their works, settle in these same neighbourhoods, creating a geographical proximity between the place of production and the place of exhibition that benefits the entire ecosystem.

For Artedusa partner galleries that have industrial spaces, the platform offers a means of documenting and sharing the unique experience of visiting these venues. Photographs of the spaces, exhibition views showing works in their dialogue with industrial architecture, texts recounting the building's history create content that attracts collectors sensitive to this experiential dimension of the contemporary gallery.