The Route
Has the time perhaps come for Paris to enter into a new phase of the Art Nouveau Route in order to invigorate its Belle Époque heritage? Currently abandoned and in the process of being sold, the Hôtel Mezzara mansion, built at 60 rue de la Fontaine in 1910 by Hector Guimard, is the perfect building to create this space, a beacon of French Art Nouveau. The association Le Cercle Guimard has begun working towards acquiring the mansion to convert it into a living testimony to the architect of the Paris underground - and in the process, provide the missing link between the French and European Art Nouveau movements.
Designed for a Venetian textile industrialist, the Hôtel Mezzara has retained its original interior layout, with its reception rooms, workshop and living spaces distributed around a large cathedral ceiling hall crowned by an impressive stained glass skylight. All its decorative elements have been preserved, including stucco cornices, wrought iron ornamentation, fireplaces, stained glass doors, etc. The mansion has also uniquely managed to maintain a complete dining room ensemble, the only example today of a fully furnished, decorated space by Hector Guimard.
As part of the exhibition in Barcelona in 2012 entitled "The Other Pedreras", dedicated to the great contemporary works of Gaudí´s Casa Mila, the Mezzara mansion was a clear winner as the representative building of Parisian Art Nouveau.
Le Cercle Guimard is planning the creation of a Guimard Foundation to provide substance to this project, to be headquartered in the mansion in order to ensure the future and promotion of this Art Nouveau jewel. But Le Cercle Guimard is also aware that it cannot undertake this ambitious project alone and has called on all institutions and lovers and fans of Art Nouveau to join in supporting it with this initiative.
Contact our association now for the good of Art Nouveau, Paris and Guimard.
www.lecercleguimard.fr
fondation.guimard@lecercleguimard.fr
