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With the Left Bank of the Garonne now confirming its status as a centre of culture, a new idea has seen the light of day in the former Toulouse abattoirs, which were opened in 1831 by the town architect and designer Urbain Vitry.

In 1995, after an international competition, the architects Antoine Stinco and Rémi Papillault created a vast open space of 6000m2 to accommodate the new purpose of the building: permanent and temporary exhibitions, artistic experimentation and encouragement to creativity, a library with access for the public, bookshop, auditorium.

While the theatre curtain by Picasso, installed on the 14th July 1936, 'La Dépouille du Minotaure en costume d'Arlequin' is its most monumental work, the wealth of the collection of almost 2000 works (drawings, paintings, photos and reliefs) offers a panoramic view of numerous artistic currents born out of the second world war in the USA, Europe and the Far East: abstract expressionism, lyric art and tachism, art brut, informal art, El Paso, Cobra, Gutaï..., spatialism, arte povera and trans avant garde, free figure ... It is also open to today's new forms of contemporary art.

The Daniel Cordier donation, which is housed here, allows the visitor to approach artists of the prestige of Arman, Bellemer, Brassai, César, Chaissac, Combas, Dado, Dewasne, Dubuffet, Duchamp, Falhstrom, Gabritschevsky, Hartung, Le Gac, Mapplethorpe, Requichot, Viallat...