MONCEAU : CITÉCO

Enter into the Economy

A la découverte de l’Economie

Anew venue opened up in Paris last June devoted to the economy. Christened the Citéco, the City of the Economy, it hosts a permanent exhibition replete with interactive displays, a café and a boutique. Visitors enter into a sumptuous decor and are initiated into the world of the economy through six sequences: Exchanges, the Players, Markets, Instabilities, Regulations, Treasures, with the final sequence presenting objects linked to the way the bank functions. Each sequence has its own identifying color and the explanatory cartels are written in three languages: French, English and Spanish. The museum offers a wide variety of approaches to the subject with 58 original videos, 26 individual and collective multi-media games, 15 interactive manipulations, 390 objects and 60 photographs. The venue is also outfitted with an auditorium, pedagogical workshop spaces, a temporary exhibition space and conferences, master classes and live shows are all on the agenda.

The museum is ensconced in the Gaillard mansion which became a branch office of the Banque de France, the central bank of France, from 1923 to 2006 and its vault room of safes is a central part of today’s museum. The City of the Economy was created upon the impetus of the bank.

« To render the economy more accessible and understandable for all has been an ambition of the Banque de France for a very long time, » explains François Villeroy de Galhau, the Governor of the Banque de France and the President of Citéco.

Visitors begin the visit by the spectacular monumental staircase in the venue while an audiovisual show metamorphoses the building illustrating contemporary economic issues through grand graphic projections animated by images.

1 place du Général-Catroux (17th), 01 86 47 10 10 www.citeco.fr

The astonishing Gaillard mansion is a distinguished Neo-Renaissance building that emerges in the 17th arrondissement. Built for the banker and art collector Emile Gaillard in the late 19th century, it is palatial and fairy-tale like in appearance with its slender turrets and intriguing brick walls. Listed as a historic monument, today it houses an exciting new educational and cultural venue, Citéco, devoted to the economy.