Biography of Michel Rostain, director and writer
Michel Rostain, born in 1942 in Mende, is a French director of lyrical and musical theater as well as a writer. Passionate about music from childhood, he was largely self-taught before pursuing more formal studies in the 1970s. He also taught philosophy and clinical psychology while working in a human sciences research laboratory.
In 1978, he founded a lyrical and musical theater company and later directed the Scène nationale de Quimper from 1995 to 2008. He has staged numerous operas and contemporary lyrical creations.
In 2011, he published his first novel Le Fils, which won the Prix Goncourt for a first novel. As an ambassador of the values of the Cité Internationale Universitaire, where he was a resident in 1963, Michel Rostain embodies the principles of diversity, dialogue, and openness at the heart of the campus’s mission. He inspires residents to draw on their own experiences to create, communicate, and touch others.
Memories are the only things that remain when nothing else is left.
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 Fondation Victor Lyon is named after the patron who financed its construction. It was designed by Lucien Bechmann, who had 25 years earlier created the adjacent Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe. The Fondation Victor Lyon was fully renovated in 2017 as part of the Cité 2025 development plan.
