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Unlike the museum's most recent president, Emma Lavigne, who ed in 2019 after leading the Centre Pompidou-Metz, Désanges comes from a more experimental background. He founded Work Method, a curatorial agency that bills itself as a "production structure," and has directed the art program at La Verrière, a Hermès-owned gallery in Brussels, since 2013. He was also a former guest curator at the Ile-de-Le 's Plateau-Frac Art Center.
The Palais de Tokyo is Paris's largest museum of contemporary art; Désanges has never previously directed an institution of this magnitude. He promised in his appointment announcement that he would treat the museum as a "living body" that would exist in a state of "permanent evolution," and that he would collaborate with regional institutions and schools. Additionally, Désanges stated that the museum would host a large participatory event outside the institution's walls once every two years under his direction.
Désanges has previously collaborated with the Palais de Tokyo. He organized a solo exhibition of Nel Beloufa in 2018, which was one of the artist's largest to date. His appointment comes at a time when many of Paris's museums are experiencing leadership changes. The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, and the Centre Pompidou have all appointed new directors in recent years.
Jean Dubreil 
