TOTEM

A place at the crossroads between art, science and society.

The Totem is a building designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc located at 11 place Nationale, recognizable by its two stacked cubes, one welcoming artists, the other housing the Institut des Systèmes Complexes de Paris Île-de-France (ISC-PIF).

In November 2017, the ISC-PIF, together with the City of Paris and the Musaïques association, inaugurated a new space on the ground floor of the Totem to enable these two universes to meet: 700m2 (ERP) dedicated to scientific culture in the broadest sense, interfacing with the academic, civic and artistic spheres.

This space, shared with the City of Paris, has all the space required for the organisation of high-visibility scientific events, as well as a co-working space, “the Shakerspace” dedicated to ISC-PIF.

Terms of use

The new spaces at 11 Place Nationale are managed by the Régie Immobilière de la Ville de Paris (RIVP). An occupancy agreement with the CNRS governs the use of the different types of spaces:

Spaces of conviviality and Auditorium: Access to this facility will be based on a pre-booking of 120 days per year. These slots are reserved by ISC-PIF. They are allocated to ISC-PIF partners for scientific events related to complex systems after selection by the ISC-PIF steering committee.

Shakerspace co-working space: dedicated exclusively to the activities of the ISC-PIF and its residents.

Arts : the Musaïques association

Musaïques was founded in 2002 by Patrice Moullet, self-taught composer, sculptor and engineer, and chaired by Cédric Villani, mathematician, 2010 Fields Medal, director of the Institut Henri Poincaré. It is a non-profit association, which purpose is to:

Support the creation of electro-coustic musical instruments, real “musical sculptures” designed and made by Patrice Moullet.
To develop, on the basis of these instruments, innovative research projects, both artistic and pedagogical, with particular attention to people with disabilities.

The Musaïques association organises Disability workshops, School Workshops, Sound creation workshops at the Totem.

More information on the Musaïques association website.

Sciences: a place dedicated to common goods

“Research and the University are undergoing profound transformations, due as much to the evolution of disciplinary boundaries as to structural reorganisations of the French academic landscape. In this context, transversality and interdisciplinarity are indispensable assets for major research and teaching institutions. Places such as the ISC-PIF are intended to foster opportunities for interaction and innovation in the framework of open science (open data, free software, reproducible science), whose logic does not necessarily follow the administrative divisions of the institutions. The ISC-PIF is thus positioned in complementarity with the major competitive clusters that are the COMUEs and Idex.

The academic sphere and civil society are also becoming increasingly interlinked. The challenges facing our societies (climate change, depletion of natural resources, food security, the social stakes of ICT, etc.) require scientific and technological breakthroughs, but also more science and society interactions in order to provide citizens with the tools to fully grasp the issues at stake.

The opening of these new spaces constitutes a real opportunity to fully develop these dynamics, benefiting from original and active modalities of exchange with civil society, stimulated by the interactions between arts and sciences, for the SAI-PIF and its partners.

These spaces will also strengthen their capacity to promote networking and collaboration between territorial poles of competence, thus giving them greater visibility and new opportunities to interact with the civic, economic and political spheres”.

David Chavalarias,
Director of the Institut des Systèmes Complexes de Paris Ile-de-France.