Art is dead--long live art: within a structure that continues to challenge the conception of built form, two concurrent exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou challenge our perception of art.

JOAN MIRO (1917-1934)

Shifting between recognizable subtleties of Abstraction and Surrealism, the period of Joan Miro's work between 1917 and 1934 was a frantic phase of development in which he pursued his mission to put to death the conventions of modern painting. Wanting to smash the guitar of the dominant Parisian Cubists, to murder their art, Miro saw pictorial convention as poison, and instead sought the art of the concept. By extending the mechanisms of Cubist representation--planar faceting, skewed perspective, and the multiple viewpoints of space/time--Miro audaciously generated a new and complex iconography based on quadrants, vectors, script, and primitive abstracted figures. Challenging conventions of representation, subject/object relationship, and--of particular interest to the spatially sensitive--perspective, his work is impossible to take at face value. Or, at least, considering his own self-declared mission, that is what one may assume Miro wanted. But to my untrained eye, while hidden meanings, scenarios and metaphors are all fascinating to unpick--in the same way as unravelling primitive allegorical art--the challenge of trying to crack Miro's code soon fades. (You can only play spot-the-sperm for so long.) When seen collectively in one place. Miro's application of paint, collage and sculpture is seductive and it is impossible to ignore the craft of his work, suggesting perhaps that his mission to kill the art of paint failed. Arguably it was his pencil studies that made the conceptual leap (of which there are many fine examples on display), and instead of serving a death sentence, Miro gave paint a new lease of life. Of particular interest is his reaction to the nature of the canvas and his representation of space: his ghostly representation of the canvas frame in Painting (Person, 1925); the repcated wall, floor and window in The Family (1924) and Harlequin's Carnival (1925), dynamically brought to life with sound and movement in the Pompidou's own animated film; the simple lines that ground objects in Still Life I; Ear of Wheat (1923); and his repeated use of the horizon--playfully reinterpreted by the Pompidou exhibition designers when framing a spectacular gallery view across the Parisian skyline to the Sacre Coeur.

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GIUSEPPE PENONE--RETROSPECTIVE (1968-2004)

While formally distinct from Miro, the world's first Giuseppe Penone retrospective brings together a collection of work that also questions the nature of art. As part of the Arte Povera Movement--founded by Italian critic Germano Celant during the Italian Student and Workers' strikes of 1968--Penone's work returns to basics in art, emphasizing the relationship between nature and culture.

Penone's work, while rustic in form, is conceptually refined, connecting man and nature. With the aid of few assistants--augmented when required by small groups of students--Penone works at a steady reflective pace, freeing his mind to contemplate future work while his hands labour; carving, moulding, tracing, or collaging. Revealing the sapling encapsulated within a 5 tonne tree trunk (Cedre de Versailles, 2000-2003), separating form and skin in anatomical plaster cast and video projections (Thorax, Pied and Yeux, 1972-73), or meticulously replicating natural boulders (Etre fleuve). With such a variety of media, his work has a wide appeal, rich in conceptual and crafted form. While some may find the craft of his work too laborious asking why take months to trace a slide projection of the blood vessels of your eye-lid when the projected image is impressive enough? one of the most profound qualities of Penone's work is how he physically encapsulates time. Playing with form/time, his work traces time lines in nature, shaping growth, movement and changing form with subtle manmade imprints. In a two-way stream of thought between gallery and the natural world of forests, rivers, and meadows, natural and manmade merge seamlessly. The spatial power of Penone's work was most profoundly demonstrated by his installation To Breathe The Shadow. With the potency of Tate Modern's Rothko Room, punctuating Bankside's otherwise white on white galleries, To Breathe The Shadow creates a dramatic sacred space within Piano and Roger's dominant art machine. (It was previously installed in a medieval castle in Avignon in 1999.) Completely lined in bay leaves, the room's aromatic and acoustically soft environment is strangely arresting, causing people to sit on the floor, and to linger in near silence. Creating an architectural environment so good you can smell it.

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In 1977, Piano and Roger's Beaubourg spectacularly turned the modern gallery inside-out, creating a popular civic destination and landmark that surprisingly many choose not to enter. Perhaps these two exhibitions should be enough to finally tempt you inside; three treats in one.

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JOAN MIRO AND GIUSEPPE PENONE CELEBRATED AT THE POMPIDOU CENTRE, PARIS. VAN EGERAAT FAILS TO CELEBRATE AVANT-GARDE IN MOSCOW'S EXPLOSION OF POST-MODERN ARCHITECTURE. CUCINELLA GOES ONE TO ONE IN CREMONA. PIANO RETROSPECTIVE IN GENOA. THE AR+D AWARDS. BROWSER. VIEW FROM STOCKHOLM.

Joan Miro (1917-1934) runs until 28 June, and Giuseppe Penone--Retrospective (1968-2004) runs until 23 August. For more information visit www.centrepompidou.fr

Two illustrated catalogues are available: Joan Miro 1971-1934: I Am Going To Smash Their Guitar, edited by Agnes de la Baumelle, published by Paul Holberton Publishing, and Giuseppe Penone, with essay by curator Catherine Grenier, published by Editions du Centre Pompidon.