Image: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris is highlighting the final days of 'Exposition Générale', its sweeping presentation of the institution’s collection and history. The exhibition runs until 23 August 2026 and is described by the foundation as a reflection of its programming, its openness to the world and four decades of contemporary art since its creation in 1984.
The show brings together emblematic works and selected fragments from exhibitions that have punctuated the Fondation Cartier’s programme over the years. According to the institution, the collection traces forty years of contemporary creation, drawn from a body that has grown through exhibition-making as much as through acquisition. The presentation aims to show that history through a broad view of the artists and forms the foundation has supported since its founding.
'Exposition Générale' is organised around four thematic lines that the foundation says run through the collection: 'Machines d’Architecture', 'Être Nature', 'Making Things' and 'Un Monde Réel'. The first focuses on architectural models, drawings, fragments and installations; the second turns to living worlds and ecological questions; the third examines exchanges between art, craft and design; and the fourth gathers practices using technology, fiction and scientific knowledge. The institution presents these as a way of mapping contemporary art beyond a conventional encyclopedic museum model.
The exhibition also extends beyond the main building at 2, place du Palais-Royal. The Fondation Cartier says the display has been conceived by Formafantasma, whose installation uses textile supports, aluminium profiles and integrated lighting to create a three-dimensional system that interacts with the architecture and with the visitor’s points of view. The institution adds that the new architectural dispositif, designed by Jean Nouvel, is part of a renewed approach to exhibition-making in the foundation’s new Paris setting.
The project also engages directly with the site’s architectural and urban history. The Fondation Cartier notes that 'Exposition Générale' takes its title from the exhibitions organised by the Grands Magasins du Louvre in the same Haussmannian building at the end of the nineteenth century. Its current location has previously served as a Grand Hotel, department store and the Louvre des Antiquaires, and the foundation presents that succession as part of the building’s own exhibition history.
Public-space interventions form another layer of the project. The foundation says the exhibition continues into the city through the Place du Palais-Royal and the Galerie Valois, the underground passage connecting the former metro station and the old department stores. In the Galerie Valois, a series of drawings by Andrea Branzi related to his 2008 project for the Grand Paris, developed with Stefano Boeri, is presented from October 2025 to February 2026, while other works by artists from the collection appear within 'Exposition Générale'.
Alongside the main exhibition, the foundation is offering guided visits and family workshops, including 'L’atelier général' for children aged six to 10 and 'Le coloro-mobile' for ages three to five. The site also promotes a free 'Souvent -30' pass for new members under 30, valid for one year and offered until 23 August 2026. The Fondation Cartier says the exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and until 10 p.m. on Tuesdays.
