Maison de l’Amérique latine

Founded in 1946 in Paris, France
Director: Alain Rouquié

The Maison de l’Amérique latine is an exceptionnal and privileged place of receptions and meetings for the cultural and diplomatic Latin American community in Paris.
It has the ambition of being a lace of encounters and exchanges, where all artistic expressions meet.
The Maison de l’Amérique latine counts with of conference rooms, an auditorium, and lounges that open onto a wide park. It is equiped with all the infrastructures that are necessary to the organization of events and receptions of quality.
The Maison de l’Amérique latine (House of Latin America) was founded in 1946, in the wake of the French Resistance, under General de Gaulle’s impulse and following the initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
It was born of the necessity of having Latin-American and French people meet in order to get to know each other better.
Professors Paul Rivet, Pasteur Vallery-Radot, the former ambassador of Brasil, Mr Luiz de Souza Dantas and Mr. Robert de Billy materialized this generous idea, laying down the basis of the Maison de l’Amérique latine, whose goal is to serve, reinforce, and develop the relationships and all sorts or exchanges between France and the 20 Republics of Latin America.
The Maison de l’Amérique latine occupies two different mansions :
The Hotel de Varengeville » built in 1704 by the architect Jacques Gabriel V.
The Hotel Amelot de Gournay » built in 1712 by the architect Boffrand.
After having belonged to prestigious families, these two mansions became properties of the Bank of France. They are linked by the first floor lounges which open onto gardens à la française.
Though the “Hotel de Varengeville” was greatly mutilated in 1876 because of the extension of the boulevard Saint-Germain, and the “moods” of the different owners, the “Hotel Amelot de Gournay”, on the other hand, preserved the aspect it had when it was first built. The portal, the courtyard and the lounge named “of the Ambassadors” belong to the national survey’s list of historical monuments.
Since 1984, the successive authorities have dedicated themselves to perpetuate the existence of the institution and to give the opportunity to acquire a status and visibility on lever with France’s foreign policy’s ambitions towards Latin American States.
Under the presidency of Mr. Guy Georgy, ambassador to France, the measures implemented have permited to restore, renovate and adapt parts of the two buildings that are occupied by the Maison de l’Amérique latine in order to put them more in accordance with it main missions : diplomatic, cultural and economic.
The Maison de l’Amérique latine has demonstrated that, at its scale, it has played an irreplaceable role at the service of the Latin-American policy in France. This role being particularly appreciated by the nations of Latin America and the ambassadors appointed to France. Today, the president of the Maison del’Amérique latine is Alain Rouquié, former ambassador to such countries as El Salvador, Mexico and Brazil, and former director of the Americas and the Caribean at the French Department of Foreign Affairs, beween 1992 and 1996. He is a specialist of Latin American contemporary issues and the author of many books of studies on these matters.

Latest and next Exhibitions:
5.11/2014 – 31.01/2015 – Carlos Cruz-Diez en noir et blanc
5.11/2014 -13.01/2015 – Emma Malig – Atlas in Fine II
16.01 – 30.01/2015 – Olhares sobre Brasilia
07.03/16.05/2015 – Carmen Perrin – Entrer dehors sortir dedans

Exhibtions on Artesur:
2014 – La fascination des Sirènes – Fredi Casco
2012 – Voyage Voyage, un art contemporain déboussolé