The Consortium and the Musée de l'Électricité de Bourgogne, two original cultural outings!

Le Consortium is a museum of contemporary art located in the city of Dijon, and is one of France's largest exhibition centres for modern art.

The museum opened in Dijon in 2011, following plans drawn up by a Japanese architect named Shigeru Ban. Initially, this museum of contemporary art took shape in 1977, on the first floor of an alternative bookshop. The exhibition then moved to an old shop in Dijon's market square. Under the initiative of young academics, modern art was exhibited.

The temple of modern art

During the 1980s, "minimal and conceptual art" was given pride of place in this exhibition, while in 1990, new emerging artists exhibited their work there. In 2000, the Consortium organised the very first French exhibitions of American artists, and thus gained a wider reputation. Although the exhibitions are always temporary, today more than 350 works are on permanent display.

Most of these works have been donated by artists who have exhibited at the Consortium. The institution also offers a selection of works on temporary display. These represent more than ten collections per year. The primary aim of the Consortium remains, as it has been since its creation, the exhibition of contemporary works, but also the promotion, training, dissemination and enrichment of this heritage for a wide audience.

Temporary exhibitions

If you'd like to find out more about the temporary exhibitions, the Consortium website will give you all the information you need, so you and your family can try and introduce the younger members of your family to contemporary art, which is often little-known to the general public. The advantage is that, during your different stays in Dijon, you'll be able to enjoy different exhibitions every time. Le Consortium is one of the best centres for learning about contemporary art.

A well-stocked calendar

A special section for forthcoming exhibitions is also available on the Consortium website, if you would like to see the next works to be featured during your future trip to Dijon.

Modernity means electricity. A few kilometres from Dijon, in Saint-Apollinaire to be precise, there is a museum devoted to the electric field, talking about its origins and its various uses over the last century. This museum is ideal for a family outing, if you want to learn how every little switch in your home works.

The Musée de l'Electricité de Bourgogne was founded in 1992. Hippolyte Fontaine was born in Dijon in 1833 and was admitted to the Arts et Métiers school in Châlons-sur-Marne at the age of 15. After training as a pattern-maker, he joined the Clément Desormes workshops in Oullins in 1853. In 1881, he was the driving force behind the Electricity Exhibition at the Palais de l'Industrie in Paris, while a few years later he founded the Syndicat Professionnel des Industries Électriques and the Laboratoire Central de l'Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité. The Dijon museum therefore wanted to honour this man by borrowing his name.

Visiting the museum

Several permanent exhibitionsare on display in this unusual museum. The Musée d'Electricité de Bourgogne - Hippolyte Fontaine is one of the city's free centres. Founded by an association, you can enjoy a visit to this museum for nothing.

First, there's an exhibition on the evolution of household appliances. Initially designed to help women in their domestic work, these machines now form a veritable collection, and some of them may well surprise you. With practicality in mind, many of these machines were designed to improve communication and broadcasting systems. You'll see the first telephones, as well as the first radios and televisions.

The various lighting systems that have been used over the generations are also highlighted, while various electrical generators designed by Hippolyte Fontaine and Zenoble Gramme are on display. These generators led to new industrial development and many other advances in electricity.