The Future of Cities: Fondation Cartier and The World Around Gather Leaders in LA

On February 21, The World Around, in collaboration with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and presented by the Hammer Museum, brought In Focus: Transformation to Los Angeles for its West Coast debut. The free public program unfolded at a pivotal moment for the city—one year after devastating fires reshaped its terrain and psyche, and just ahead of the global spotlight of the upcoming Olympics.

Meticulously curated by Beatrice Galilee, Founder and Executive Director of The World Around, and Béatrice Grenier, Director of Strategic Projects and International Programs at the Fondation Cartier, the program gathered a myriad of architects, artists, landscape visionaries, and cultural thinkers. The visionary panel included Walter Hood, Alice Bucknell, Julia Watson, Kulapat Yantrasast, Patricia Urquiola, and many more. Through deeply moving talks, screenings—including new episodes of Young Climate Stories—and conversations, the day positioned design as an instrument: a method for confronting climate trauma, reimagining civic space, and reshaping systems at every scale.

For Grenier, whose remarkable work bridges architecture, institutional strategy, and exhibition-making—including a recent monographic presentation of Jean Nouvel during the Venice Architecture Biennale—transformation is a structural condition of culture itself: the engine of its becoming.

Fondation Cartier Considers Architecture as a Civic Tool

WHITEWALL: “In Focus: Transformation” brings together perspectives from art, architecture, and critical thought. As co-curator, how did you approach the idea of “transformation” as both a conceptual lens and a lived, social process rather than a purely aesthetic theme?

BÉATRICE GRENIER: It is very important in my work as a curator—and in the cultural policy of the Fondation Cartier—to think about architecture at the core of everything we do. Architecture is not just a container for art; it defines how we approach exhibition-making itself. It is often overlooked how deeply it shapes our experience of culture.

When I began working on the transformation project, we had just moved into a new building near the Louvre last October. After five years of collaboration with Jean Nouvel, we suddenly had a new tool—a new architectural system. That shift forced us to think about how changing architecture could change the way we view culture.

Through this process, I realized that cultural institutions do not spend enough time theorizing the role architecture plays in connecting museums, cities, and artists. This awareness reshaped my work on multiple levels. There was the six-year architectural project itself. There was also the desire to redefine the place of architecture exhibitions within our program, which began with the Jean Nouvel exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

At the same time, I wanted to expand our discursive programming. Because we were under construction and without a venue, I reached out to The World Around, whose digital platform offered a different kind of space. The idea of an itinerant, global forum for architecture felt urgent and expansive. It allowed us to shape a broader audience and position architecture as a civic conversation.

“The idea of an itinerant, global forum for architecture felt urgent and expansive.”

Béatrice Grenier

The museum’s role in a city is multifold. One of its civic responsibilities is to give audiences the vocabulary to debate and understand architecture and urbanism. The decisions made about architecture determine how we build communities, integrate nature into cities, and ultimately live together. Museums must foreground this awareness.

Over the past three years, we have organized four forums. We began in 2023 with Radical Repair. Architecture had become obsessed with restoring things to an original state. We added “radical” to suggest something more ambitious—moving beyond repair toward surpassing the original condition.

That thinking led us to landscape. We rarely discuss urban transformation through landscape theory, yet it may be the future of cities. Public space must now be conceived through an ecosystem perspective—integrating green systems, restoring biodiversity, and mitigating climate risk. Landscape architecture operates at scales that individual buildings cannot.

“We rarely discuss urban transformation through landscape theory, yet it may be the future of cities.”

Béatrice Grenier

This naturally led to transformation. If you are invested in radical repair and landscape systems, you are already working within constant metamorphosis. Nature evolves. It disbalances. It adapts. Our program embraces that condition.

We deliberately include voices beyond traditional architecture—artists, designers, landscape architects—because transformation is transdisciplinary. Architecture is never fixed. It is always becoming, and that process is profoundly positive.

A City in Flux

WW: How did bringing “In Focus: Transformation” to Los Angeles shape the conversation with Fondation Cartier and The World Around?

BG: Los Angeles carries a specific architectural and urban history. It is also in a moment of profound change. The recent fires and the coming Olympics place the city at an intersection between catastrophe and renewal. That context made transformation especially meaningful here.

In Paris, the conversation would be different. Paris is often imagined as complete—a Haussmannian city with a fixed identity. Transformation there requires confronting heritage. Los Angeles, by contrast, has transformation embedded in its ontology.

Engaging LA audiences allowed us to ask what transformation means locally and globally. Zoe Ryan was instrumental in making this possible. Her deep engagement with architecture and design created a natural alignment with our intentions. The presence of “Made in L.A.,” which also engages transformation through artistic practice, made the dialogue even richer.

Instability as Creative Force

WW: Transformation often implies instability. How did you approach that tension?

BG: Many institutions focus on ecology and sustainability, which is crucial. But there is often an assumption that instability must be corrected—that equilibrium is the goal.

Nature does not function that way. It survives through imbalance. It adapts through disruption. That idea became central for me.

Transformation, then, becomes a productive concept. Change produces culture. A lack of equilibrium can generate new forms of thinking. Although transformation sometimes carries a negative connotation, it ultimately opens new paths.

“A lack of equilibrium can generate new forms of thinking.”

Béatrice Grenier

In many ways, the program itself became a process of transformation—for the institutions involved and for me personally.

Singular Vision, Collective Voice

WW: How does curatorial authorship shift between a monographic exhibition and a collective forum like this?

BG: An exhibition is always collective. It is fragile and requires extreme precision. The Jean Nouvel exhibition was collaborative at every level. We were not only presenting his work; we were designing the exhibition environment with him. The scenography became part of the dialogue.

I focused on highlighting his contribution to museographic design—how he reimagined exhibition display within his broader architectural practice.

A discursive program operates differently. With talks, you can propose prompts, but you try to curate how the ideas unfold and land across the day. It is cross-institutional and layered with collaboration. The key is identifying the central discursive thread and aligning every element toward it.

Mutual Transformation

WW: What do you hope audiences carry with them?

BG: I hope they leave with tools—tools to provoke transformation within their own disciplines.

Transformation is infinite and reciprocal. Institutions change one another through collaboration. Culture never emerges in isolation.

“Transformation is infinite and reciprocal.”

Béatrice Grenier

Ideally, the speakers will transform each other as much as they influence the audience. That continuous exchange—that infinite movement—is the essence of transformation itself.