Here is the whole building, and it is... : An Art Centre.
The National Contemporay Art Centre of Grenoble, named « MAGASIN » opened in April 1986. It is a national and international exhibition venue. Open to contemporay creation in all its diversity, it has a forward-looking stance.
A product of the Grands Projets and process of decentralisation initiated by President François Mitterrand in 1981, it also embodies public efforts to integrate the French art scene into the European context.
The MAGASIN of Grenoble is one of the two National Contemporary Art Centres in France with Villa Arson in Nice.
The building: an industrial waste land.
The name « MAGASIN » is linked to the history of the building in which it is located. The National Contemporary Art Centre is housed in a 3000 m2 industrial hall built in 1900 by the Gustave Eiffel workshops for the Paris World Fair. Bought by Bouchayer-Viallet Ltd from Grenoble, working in the area of hydroelectric equipment, the iron structure was dismantled, transported and reassembled. During the first World War, it became a large center for manufacture of war material.
After 1960, the Bouchayers diversified their activities: coppersmith’s work, milk tanks... From 1970 to 1975, the building was used as a warehouse (MAGASIN in French). It was bought by the city of Grenoble in 1980.
« MAGASIN », written on the blue metallic door, has been conserved and became the name and the logotype of the National Contemporary Art Centre of Grenoble.
All these explanations are taken from the website of the Magasin. There is an English version but the website is very dull.
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Lovely photo.