Chapter four - article one
The Fondation Cartier:
a new venue in the
heart of paris
Almost thirty years after moving to Boulevard Raspail, the Fondation Cartier is now moving to the heart of Paris at 2 Place du Palais-Royal in the first arrondissement. Facing the Louvre, it inaugurates a building true to its vocation: promoting contemporary creation in all its forms.
A building open
to all disciplines
That’s how architect Jean Nouvel imagined it when asked by the Fondation Cartier to transform a building dating from the mid-19th century. This project, carried out in the Haussmann building that once housed the former Grands Magasins du Louvre, was conceived as a modular scenographic tool entirely open to the city thanks to its large bay windows.
Site view of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain’s future premises, Place du Palais-Royal, Paris, 2025
The building that houses the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain since Autumn 2025, Place du Palais-Royal, Paris. Interior architecture by Jean Nouvel.
Comprising five mobile platforms, its dynamic architecture reimagines the possibilities of exhibition-making. Retractable ceilings allow natural light to be regulated, and mechanical railings offer the possibility of adding or removing viewpoints of the immediate urban environment. The first exhibition to be presented in the new building in October, the Exposition Générale, will display the Fondation Cartier’s artistic identity and heritage through nearly 600 works by over 100 artists who have participated in its program from 1984 to the present day.
“Moving into such an impressive site, in terms of location and history, entails a form of invention. The space is marked by a different way of doing: a way of conceiving how artists can have maximum power of expression.”
An exhibition that looks
back on the 40-year history
of a unique collection
By reflecting the history of the institution and its openness to the world in all its diversity, the Fondation Cartier Collection bears witness to four decades of international contemporary creation. The exhibition highlights the singularity of a unique collection assembled from artworks throughout its history.
It consists of solo exhibitions and thematic ensembles around which the Fondation Cartier’s artistic commitments are articulated - architecture, living worlds, technology and science are displayed through emblematic works and portions of landmark exhibitions that have shaped the institution’s history.
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