The Public Commission designates both an art object - art that vacates its reserved spaces in order to encounter the population where they live - and a procedure, characterised by different phases, from the initiative of the sponsor until the production of the work and its reception by the public.
Arising, in the past, from the authoritative - and sometimes arbitrary - choice of the powers that be, the Public Commission was increasingly carried out in a collegial manner that respected the artistic projects. Hence, it developed in a popular and commemorative way throughout the nineteenth century - the century of "statumania" - and found its autonomy in the '30s.

1982, the year in which the "fonds de la commande publique" (Public Commissions Fund) was created.

With the establishment of the "Centre National des Arts Plastiques" (The National Centre for the Fine Arts), "la commande publique" became truly independent with respect to procurement: it was supervised by the "Bureau de la Commande Publique" (The Office of Public Commissions).

Out of concern for engaging the participation of artists in the urban arena and developing a commission policy that favoured local communities, important projects were launched by the Government during this decade. The results of this period were indisputably positive, and great successes have become references today (Buren, Dubuffet, Kosuth, Soulages...).

Since 1990, the dynamism of local communities.

In addition to enriching the artistic heritage, renewing creation and carrying-out utopian and original projects, the enthusiasm incited by the State in the '80s above all afforded several municipalities the opportunity to initiate their own public commissions.

For the Nord-Pas de Calais region in the North of France, we list several achievements: Richard Deacon (Park of the Musée d’art moderne de Villeneuve d’Ascq), Gaetano Pesce (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille), Ingo Maurer (Archives du Monde du Travail - Roubaix), Daniel Buren (cloister of the Musée de la Chartreuse – Douai)…

For more information, you can visit the la commande publiquewebsite.