Biography de Valérie Pécresse, politician
Valérie Pécresse, born on July 14, 1967, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, is a French politician. After studying at HEC and ENA, she became a member of the Conseil d’État from 1992 to 2015. She taught at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) from 1992 to 1998. Serving as Minister of Higher Education and Research from 2007 to 2011, she initiated the reform on university autonomy. Valérie Pécresse has written several works on various topics, including politics, education, and the economy. She is the author of Controverses, co-written with Axel Kahn (2011), and Being a Woman Politician… It’s Not That Easy! (2007), where she analyzes the role of women in politics. She has received several honors, including being named an Officer of the Legion of Honour.
A society that does not value its teachers is a society that has not understood the challenge of tomorrow’s globalization.
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 Maison de l’Île-de-France was entirely funded by the Île-de-France Region. Its construction is part of the “Cité 2025” development plan. Designed using the most innovative sustainable development techniques, it meets the site’s constraints and is optimized to comply with Net Zero Energy (ZEN) standards.
