Since its creation in 1984, the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon has chosen to collect exhibitions, which are the ideal opportunity to acquire very specific works, often monumental ones, designed by artists working closely with the museum. Each work of this kind represents a very specific moment in the artist’s body of work.

Indeed, the policy of the macLYON is guided by a few simple principles, of which the most significant is the fact that the Museum is designed to be entirely at the artists’ disposal. The dialogue initiated with them has contributed to the creation of a collection that is primarily a collection of exhibitions. The Museum’s ‘scientific’ objective has determined a few fundamental ideas: the production of artworks, the collection of ‘moments’, representative works and retro-visions or perspectives.