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After the success of the
first French “Motor Village”, opened last year at
Cannes, the second Fiat Group Automobiles centre opens
in Paris this week. This is a continuously evolving
project which began four years ago with the Mirafiori
Motor Village in Turin, the first multi-purpose Fiat
Group site in the world which, with 70,000 square metres,
is the largest exhibition space in Europe dedicated to
the car.
Located near the Rond-Point of the Champs-Élysées, a
location as much legendary as it is prestigious, the new
structure in Paris invites the public to discover the
brands of the Fiat Group (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia,
Abarth, Maserati and Jeep) and live out the engaging
“New Italy Experience“, made up of sensations, emotions
and interactive encounters with the finest Italian
values and products. Design, performance, technology,
fashion, cuisine and music all inhabit this cutting-edge
location, united in a spirit of stylish grandeur: from
the NoLita restaurant to the La Terrazza café, passing
through temporary displays, the magic of the glass tube
that brings cars to every level, plus the musical
programme.
The Paris Motor Village is intended as a modern theatre
of the contemporary world, which strives to offer
visitors the possibility of experiencing the Italian
life of yesterday, today and tomorrow. What’s more, the
famous architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who oversaw its
construction, conceived it from the beginning as a
meeting point between an Italian theatre and a workshop
which is open to the public. Restructuring the Rond-Point
of the Champs-Élysées, the location that houses the
Publicis Drugstore, the outside of the structure that
houses the Motor Village features great transparent
windows and new neoclassical decoration. Inside, there
are 5 distinct floors (two of which mezzanine) for the
visitors within 17 metres of height, united centrally by
a magnificent glass tube which houses the vehicles on
display. The internal arrangement was conceived as a
theatrical scene to accommodate the various locations of
the temporary displays. Additionally, Jean-Michel
Wilmotte has furnished the NoLita restaurant, on the
second floor, La Terrazza, the open-air café on avenue
Matignon, and the boutique.
The main architectural feature of the Motor Village is
the central glass tube, 14 metres in height, which
displays the cars of the various Fiat Group brands.
Located at the centre of the building, it was conceived
as a central nucleus which unites the various floors.
Its sides are slightly flattened and it takes the shape
of the Fiat logo. The cars, placed inside the tube on a
lifting platform, are displayed one by one over all of
the height available. Plus, thanks to a mechanism
inspired by the theatre, the Spiralift, the various
platforms can be raised and lowered silently to change
the point of view. The visual impact of the tube is
amplified by an array of giant rear-view mirrors which
create an infinite mirror effect. The onlooker can
therefore examine the various sides of the cars from
unprecedented angles, as though there were a giant
kaleidoscope.
The NoLita (North of Little Italy) restaurant can be
found on the second floor of the Paris Motor Village. It
offers the finest specialities of Italian cuisine under
the watchful eye of chef Vittorio Beltramelli. Open
until 11 in the evening and with space for 80 people,
the refined venue guarantees an “authentically Italian”
service: warm, simple and friendly. The Paris Motor
Village also offers visitors La Terrazza, an authentic
Italian café, open from 8 until 2 in the morning, which
looks out directly onto avenue Matignon. The
multi-purpose centre in Paris is also distinguished by
the musical programme of Thierry Planelle, artistic
director of Virgin France and director of audiography
for large-scale cultural and artistic events. The
showroom and restaurant enjoy ambient music at every
hour of the day. There’s more: every half hour features
original works, genuine audio signatures which unite
Italian voices, film soundtracks by Nino Rota or arias
by Verdi in a modern, creative broadcast. Finally, the
Motor Village will feature live concerts and exclusive
musical events.
The new multi-purpose centre also offers visitors a true
novelty in the field of automotive showrooms: the
installation of three commissioned video artworks by
three artists from the international contemporary art
scene (Pippo Lionni, Guillaume Paris and Hugues Reip)
which will be on display for a year. In particular, the
work “You are what you drive” by artist and designer
Pippo Lionni, in keeping with his symbol-populated
universe, invites the public to play with his
interactive creation, influencing the drivers of each of
the six brands present in real time.
In the 3D universe of Guillaume Paris on the other hand,
created for the occasion, you can travel in the “New
Italy” through a composition of images and sensations
that evoke the cultural origin and diversity of the Fiat
Group, recalling speed, refinement, comfort, elegance
and modernity. The exposition is completed by the work
of Hugues Reip, exclusively brought to life through a
giant wall of LEDs. It transports you to the universe of
the vehicle of the future, fusing the liquid and
hydrogen bubbles that accompany visitors to the upper
floors and explode in concentric waves of a different
colour for every hour of the day.
Finally, the Motor Village is a meeting place that will
keep pace with the trends and innovations of the Fiat
Group. Events, evenings, temporary displays and concerts
are the order of the day over the course of the whole
year. Located in the basement, the Gallery is the ideal
place to present the work of various young contemporary
artists, both in the fields of painting and photography
and art video. Also, a series of events dedicated to the
brands of the Fiat Group is scheduled. Visitors will be
entertained through an interactive journey which is fun
but also instructive: the first session, from 10 July to
15 August, will feature the special series Lancia
Ypsilon ELLE. From 16 August to 26 September, the Motor
Village will put on its sporting colours for the
centenary of Alfa Romeo. From 27 September to 30
October, technology and the environment will be at the
forefront with the presentation of the new two-cylinder
TwinAir engine, a Fiat Group exclusive which increases
performance, significantly reducing fuel consumption and
CO2 emissions.
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