The Ministry of Arts and Culture is seriously considering setting up a National Art Gallery. It has indeed just launched calls for tenders for the development of this gallery in the old rice warehouse located at Quai D next to the old military hospital. This dilapidated building will be dusted off and transformed into a place where the works of local artists will be exhibited.
A guided tour for companies interested in rehabilitating this building is scheduled for August 26. Local artists welcome this project, which they say will help to highlight the creation of Mauritian artists. For the time being, the building needs to be disinfected and the old stones will be cleaned and rehabilitated.
The National Art Gallery will also be enclosed. According to experts, the old building contains asbestos, so the workers, who will be called to demolish a certain part of the building, will have to be protected. Also, the debris resulting from the demolition of this part of the building will have to be sent to an engineered landfill site, according to sanitary standards. The wooden beams, posts and frames, which have been eaten away by thermites, will also have to be removed and replaced. Those who know this warehouse, say that rodents have found refuge there.
The closing of bids for this project has been set for September 22. The contractor will have approximately two hundred days to completely rehabilitate this building.
