Everyone knows Le Carreau du Temple. But who is behind it? Since 2015, a discreet woman attentive to others, Sandrina Martins, has presided over the destiny of this mecca of culture which radiates beyond the Marais and Paris.
General director of the “Local public company Carreau du Temple”, she attracts audiences interested in culture or sports, or both at the same time, to this hybrid place.

On the site of the old old linen market from the end of the 1863th century, rebuilt in XNUMX in its current form, the Temple market has long been dedicated to second-hand clothes but also to goldsmithing, fur and leather.
It also hosted the Paris Fair in 1904 and even a carnival before falling into disuse from 1976. The year when the very unimaginative RPR mayor of the XNUMXrd arrondissement, Jacques Dominati, wanted to raze everything to transform the place into a car park.
And that, in addition to the one he wanted to build in place of the Marché des Enfants Rouges! Protests and local mobilization made it possible to avoid these “assassinations”.

Paris Fair, 1904 – Carreau du Temple

Work of the architect Jean-François Milou, the new Carreau du Temple, redeveloped in 2014 on the basis of the 1863 building, houses a 250-seat auditorium where you can attend performances mostly contemporary dance shows but also concerts and social debates.
When its basements are dedicated to sports practices.
And a 1 m800 hall open to gastronomy (with events such as the Food Temple), contemporary artistic creation as well as dance, salons (Urban art fair, Drawing now, Art & design fair AKAA), through haute couture fashion shows etc. or even private events.
Sandrina Martins programs 230 artistic, cultural and sporting events there each year, relying on the know-how of a close-knit team and her own experience.
After working at the Grenoble choreographic center at the end of the 1990s, she was tasked with the Paris town hall as head of circus and street arts.
Her itinerary then took her to Marseille, where she successively administered a contemporary creation center, assumed the role of general secretary of the actOral festival and directed projects within the framework of “Marseille, European capital of culture”.
For five years now she has presided over the destiny of Le Carreau, whose philosophy she explains to us.
The Tile of the Temple
4 rue Eugène Spuller 75003, Paris
Monday to Friday from 10AM to 21PM
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 19 p.m.
Tel: +01 83 81 93 30

Food Temple Africa at Carreau du Temple – © Le Marais Mood
Text: Katia Barillot
28.05.21