It hasn't been an easy journey for Mudam, but at its official opening, Luxembourg's new home for modern art hopes to show the world that all that glitters in one of the world's largest financial centres is not gold.

The Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Mudam, opens on 1 July 2006. Although the serendipitous timing is mostly due to construction delays, the opening just before Luxembourg"s second reign as Capital of Culture in 2007, couldn't be more fitting. After all it was during Luxembourg"s first stint, in 1996, that the idea to build an ambitious contemporary art museum from scratch was put into action.

Controversy

The project found its first true wings with the support of the then prime minister, Jacques Santer (who remains President of Mudam's Board of Directors), but was later stalled by the high projected costs of the I.M. Pei-designed home for the museum as well as controversy over the building"s location on a prime archaeological site just outside the city centre. Adversaries of the project nicknamed it "Musée Pei". Critics fretted that the building would cost so much there would be no money left for art. All this controversy meant that defenders of the project had to battle constant opposition. The road to Mudam was a much rockier one than anyone expected.

Enter Marie-Claude Beaud, a French woman hired in 2000 to act as Mudam's General Director. Beaud does not come across as a person who cowers from controversy, which is exactly what the post requires. Her professional pedigree is more than impressive, having worked as Director of the Grenoble Museum, Director of the Cartier Foundation (Jouy-en-Josas and Paris) and General Curator of the Union Centrale des Arts

Décoratifs (Paris), just to mention some of her experience. Her strong opinions come with an equally strong sense of wry humour. She jokes that she can't enjoy dinner parties because the same Mudam issues always get debated if she is present.

One of the remits of Mudam is to build up a permanent collection, and thus far it has acquired 230 to 250 pieces. The task of purchasing falls to the Mudam Foundation guided by a scientific committee established by Beaud who validate the choices. It is a fact however, that the purchase of contemporary art tends to cause debate in any country and Beaud is a firm believer in the non-compartmentalisation of contemporary art."What is a piece of art or not? Contemporary art is difficult," she concedes. One of the things it does is challenge people, and this leaves Mudam having to find sponsors for the "controversies".

"There is always risk when one buys art," Beaud continues, "but with contemporary art the risks are less. You are not going to buy a fake Van Gogh, for example." Amusingly, she adds that the opening of the building will deflect the barrage of criticism to, at the very least, a different target. "It will be the art collection that will start to garner criticism, now that people have stopped picking on the building."

Mudam in numbers

The building (famously) is the work of sino-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, and is built on the site of Fort Thüngen, set " harmoniously in the natural and historical fabric of the Park Dräi Eechelen', designed by Michel Desvigne. The building has a total surface of 10,000 m2, and nearly 4,800 m2 of exhibition space on three levels as well as an auditorium, a boutique and a café, and has cost, to date, roughly 88 million euros.

"After the decision for the second stage of the project was decided we never went over the budget," says Beaud. Mudam currently employs a staff of around 45, and will mount three shows a year, of which one will be a large public event, one will be an artist community linked event and one will have a local Luxembourg connection.

The Mudam Foundation is financed by the Luxembourg State via the Ministry of Culture, who annually grants it money, the amount of which is fixed by law. This budget enables the museum to cover operating expenses and to acquire the works intended for the museum's collection. The budget allocated to acquisitions rose in 2005 to 825,000 euros. If you compare this to the budget of, for example, New York City"s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which has an annual budget of 85 million US dollars, it is possible to argue that, relatively speaking, the Mudam budget is quite small. "It is not huge, but I think it is correct," says Beaud. "We used a lot of this budget for the opening."

The Foundation has no choice but to augment the budget for its activities by calling upon companies and private individuals to take part in the financing of projects, which extend from the educational programme to new orders for the collection and for the exhibitions. The Banque de Luxembourg was on their side from the beginning (although Beaud is quick to add that other banks, companies and individuals gave them money or made purchases for them), and it is this kind of loyal support that will keep them running. Starting in 2007, the Foundation must seek one quarter of its budget from its own receipts and in particular from patronage. "We have to fund the activities of the programmes and we are obliged to go international," says Beaud.

A big part of their project is "Mudam Publics", a series of programmes that focus on public interaction. Mudam will have "Mediators", people who act as a direct link between the art and the public. "Not just security guards but people who are informed about the art and whom the public can ask questions." There will be other activities such as "Mudam Chats", the auditorium programmes, which will facilitate encounters with artists, directors, etc.

The "Studio" is part of the educational programme, which, "will really get going in September and bring schools into the galleries. There is no art school in Luxembourg, as there has been a music conservatory. Education is a big part. Artists are not just interested in aesthetics; we are also interested in morals. The building will help."

A cultural space for our time

Whatever critics may think of the building, it is clear that Beaud sees the beauty of the structure that Pei designed to fit organically into the chosen site, and applauds his vision as well as the pure geometric,

monumental forms. She says that the spaces are unique and varied and that they have many different types of light. "An architect is a mathematician, an artist, a builder," she says. "How should a cultural space be for our time? Pei"s architecture, the way he considered the space, allows people to feel the human quality - the softness of the stone. Pei thought about these things from the beginning. He considered this in comparison with the sky. He chose a pink, yellow type of stone (the limestone of Burgundy) because it goes with the grey sky in Luxembourg. The effect is magic."

Pei himself said, "The most important aspect that seduced me was the changing play between past and present, past and future - how to harmonise the past and the present so that they mutually reinforce each other." Mudam is a combination of modern and ancient architecture, situated between the old and the new, between the Place de l'Europe in Kirchberg and the old city centre.

What should a society spend its money on' That is an underlying question. The Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean was born from a political ambition: to make Luxembourg, "which rose to the forefront as a European and financial capital during the 1980s, a cultural capital as well." The opening show, Eldorado, was inspired by the perception people outside of Luxembourg often have about the country, which Beaud says she sometimes finds astonishing. "Everyone knows it of course as a place where people put his or her money." The myth of Eldorado, translated as "the golden one", is the vain search for a fabled city of gold. "That is why the opening show, Eldorado, was done on purpose, because people think of Luxembourg like this." But do people think of culture? With all the cultural initiatives, are people"s perceptions beginning to change?

Luxembourg is a wealthy country that is pouring quite a bit of that money back into culture. What a country should spend its money on in a free and open society is up for public debate. Beaud accepts this. "The building of a museum is a political decision," she concedes. We need politics to make culture. It is the nature of the beast. "The good thing about art is when it travels without limits or politics. Do people care that Michelangelo was Italian' I am still convinced of the role of the museum."