Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

La Ferme du Buisson, located in Noisiel, Seine-et-Marne, is a former industrial farm built between 1880 and 1888 by Émile Justin Menier, heir to the chocolate dynasty. Integrated with the Menier agro-industrial complex, it managed 1,500 hectares of agricultural land to supply the plant with raw materials (wheat, beet, milk). Its architecture, signed Jules Logre, mixes two-coloured bricks and metal frames, reflecting the industrial aesthetics of the period.

The farm was a model of innovation: chemical fertilizer laboratory, avant-garde agricultural machinery, early electrification (as early as 1889), and even a private railway linking it to the factory and the station in Emerinville. In 1889, she hosted the Agricultural Machinery Competition of the Universal Exhibition, where President Sadi Carnot decorated Claire Menier of the Order of Agricultural Merit. The barn-stable, 85 meters long, symbolized this modernity with its ground floor dedicated to animals and its floor for the storage of cereals.

After the decline of the Menier Empire in the 1960s, the farm, which had become wasteland, was saved by the Marne-la-Vallée (Epamarne) public development establishment. Rehabilitated in 1979 under the impetus of Fabien Jannelle, she reopened in 1990 as a multidisciplinary cultural centre: theatre, cinema (classified Art et Essay), contemporary art centre (labelled in 2020), and media library. The facades and roofs were listed as historical monuments in 1986.

Today, the Ferme du Buisson, managed in EPCC, offers eclectic programming (living shows, exhibitions, festivals like Time d'images or PULP), while preserving its architectural heritage. The Wall Drawing N°649 by Sol LeWitt, created as part of the artistic 1%, marks its anchor in contemporary art. The site remains a unique testimony of 19th century industrial utopia, combining worker memory and current creation.

The complex also includes shared gardens, hives, and a restaurant, perpetuating its role as a place of life. Its annual budget (EUR 4.5 million) is financed by the State, the Île-de-France region and local authorities. Since 2022, Marion Fouilland-Bousquet has been leading the project, pursuing a mission of artistic diffusion and territorial animation.

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