Biography of André Honnorat, politician (1868–1950)
André Honnorat was a French politician committed to social and educational reforms. Born in Paris, he began a career in journalism before joining public administration. He served as deputy for the Basses-Alpes from 1910 and became a senator in 1921, also serving as Minister of Public Instruction in 1920. Between 1917 and 1920, he initiated numerous humanitarian foundations and legislative measures: the committee for the protection and education of war orphans and children of French citizens living abroad (1918); the so-called “Honnorat law,” establishing sanatoriums for tuberculosis patients; and the construction of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris starting in 1923, in collaboration with patron Émile Deutsch de la Meurthe. He was also behind the adoption of daylight saving time in France. André Honnorat passed away on July 24, 1950, at the age of 82, at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, to which he devoted thirty years of his life.
For it is not enough for us that war be outlawed. What we want is for hatred to be banished from hearts.
A poem-chair
“I adopted the chair, this familiar object, a few decades ago, at a time when I wanted to create art on a human scale in public spaces, while everywhere else people opted for the monumental: it is an object shaped like the body and serves the body. It is difficult to feel exclusive ownership of an object so universally shareable. It is mine when I occupy it, but if I leave it, someone else can claim it as their chair.” Michel Goulet, artist-sculptor
The project Prendre position
Prendre position is a sculpture-installation project of 47 chair-poems to mark the 100th anniversary of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. They were installed in a flowered meadow created especially for the occasion by the campus estate service.
This artistic installation was conceived by the Quebecois artist-sculptor Michel Goulet, in collaboration with François Massut, founding director of the collective Poésie is not dead.
Each house on the campus is represented by a chair, thanks to a donation from the Maison des étudiants canadiens and the support of the Labrenne group. Each of the 47 chairs is a unique work.
History and architecture of the house
The Résidence André Honnorat, named after one of the founding fathers of the Cité internationale, was funded by a donation from Louis Dreyfus in 1930. This residence was established in the premises of the former dispensary.
