Fondation Cartier Ushers in a New Era in Paris, Bridging Art, City, and Memory

The Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain inaugurates a new stage in the center of Paris. On October 25, the institution will open to the public its new headquarters at 2, place du Palais-Royal, a historic building renovated by architect Jean Nouvel. The new space is integrated into the former Grands Magasins du Louvre and proposes a dynamic architecture based on mobile platforms and large windows open to the city.

The first exhibition, entitled Exposition Générale, will run until August 2026 and will bring together nearly 600 works by more than 100 international artists. The show will serve as a letter of introduction to the new building and a historical journey through the foundation's four decades of activity, since its creation in 1984. The collection, which has grown in parallel to the exhibition program, includes key pieces linked to art, architecture, science and natural worlds.

The new headquarters proposes an architecture that acts both as an extension of the Parisian urban landscape and as a tribute to its history. The interior design of the building has been conceived to offer variable exhibition possibilities. The five mobile platforms make it possible to rethink the route of the exhibitions and to adapt the space to different formats.

The Fondation Cartier moves into the former Grands Magasins du Louvre

The inaugural exhibition is inspired by the former Exposition Générale of the Grands Magasins du Louvre, where objects and clothing were presented in the style of the great universal exhibitions of the 19th century. The exhibitions began in 1855 to coincide with Haussmann's works in Paris and sought to offer a broad vision of material culture and the modern world.

With this historical reference, the Fondation Cartier proposes its Exposition Générale as a space of encounter between the artistic, the scientific and the social. Since its foundation, the institution has promoted a diverse and cross-cutting program. The new exhibition recovers fragments of key projects and works representative of its strongest curatorial lines: the relationship between art and science, ecological thinking, technological exploration and discourses on architecture.

The move to the center of Paris marks a turning point in the history of the foundation, seeking to make itself visible as a public actor in contemporary culture. The opening in an emblematic and accessible building represents a commitment to bring art to a wider public, from the dialogue between the city and its history.