Architecture & Exhibitions
Fondation Cartier Reopens in Central Paris with Jean Nouvel’s Shape‑Shifting Museum
An 1855 landmark between the Louvre and Palais‑Royal becomes a new kind of museum—part historic arcade, part kinetic stage—launching with “Exposition générale”.
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has opened a bold new home at 2 Place du Palais‑Royal in the heart of Paris, directly opposite the Louvre. Inside a restored Haussmannian shell dating to the 1855 Exposition Universelle, architect Jean Nouvel has inserted a kinetic core: five mobile platforms that can be set to eleven heights, multiplying spatial combinations and effectively turning the building into a programmable exhibition machine.
From department store to “moving museum”
Behind the preserved arcades of Rue de Rivoli, the interiors open into a soaring nave where those platforms rise and fall beneath a glass canopy. The project reframes the former Grands Magasins du Louvre as an adaptable cultural space—an explicit departure from the static “white cube.” The new site offers 8,500 m² accessible to the public, including 6,500 m² of exhibition space spread across the lower level, ground floor, and first floor.
“Exposition générale” inaugurates the space
The opening exhibition, Exposition générale (Oct 25, 2025–Aug 23, 2026), designed by FormaFantasma, draws some 600 works from the Fondation’s 4,500‑piece collection. Organized into thematic constellations—from a laboratory of architectural experiments to ecologies of the living—the show reactivates the building’s mercantile past while proposing a new map of contemporary practice. Artists on view include figures such as David Lynch, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, James Turrell, Sarah Sze, Olga de Amaral, and Chéri Samba.
A civic foyer on the Louvre’s doorstep
The museum’s street‑level transparency restores the building’s original rhythm of arcades and shopfronts while inviting passersby to look in. New public‑facing amenities—bookstore, café, and education spaces—are folded into the plan, underscoring an ambition to welcome a broader, more international audience and to operate as an open forum for exchange.
Planning a visit
Where: 2 Place du Palais‑Royal, 75001 Paris • Exhibition dates: Oct 25, 2025 → Aug 23, 2026 • Tickets: €15 full / €10 reduced (check the Fondation’s site for current details).
Why this matters
With a dynamic architecture capable of millions of configurations, the Fondation Cartier’s return to central Paris epitomizes a wider shift: museums are becoming responsive platforms that can torque their own spatial DNA to suit art, audiences, and civic life. Here, that responsiveness is not a metaphor—it’s built into the building.
Shop the look — Paris & Architecture Picks (Sponsored)
Images © their respective owners. Used here for news reporting and commentary.