The Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain is making a triumphant return to Paris with the grand opening of its new space at 2 Place du Palais-Royal on October 25. The move coincides with Paris Art Week and positions the foundation near major cultural landmarks including the Louvre and François Pinault's Bourse de Commerce museum. The foundation has secured a lease for two consecutive terms, ensuring its presence in this prime location for the next 40 years.

Established in 1984 by Alain Dominique Perrin, who was then president of Cartier International, the foundation was created at the suggestion of artist César. After operating from its previous glass-and-steel home on Boulevard Raspail, the institution now occupies a building with remarkable historical significance. Originally constructed for the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Haussmannian style, the five-story structure first served as the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, showcasing France's industrial progress during the Second Empire.

The building underwent several transformations throughout its history. In 1887, it became the Grands Magasins du Louvre, an iconic department store known for its innovative retail spaces and themed exhibitions. During the 1970s, it was renovated into the Louvre des Antiquaires, hosting over 240 antique shops and art galleries until closing in 2019 due to declining attendance. While the arcades along Rue de Rivoli, originally designed by Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, preserve the building's architectural dialogue with the historic district, the interior has been completely reimagined.

French architect Jean Nouvel, who designed the foundation's previous home, has created an entirely new interior that prioritizes openness and flexibility. "Our building is the only one in the neighborhood with a seamlessly unified architectural program on the ground floor, accessible through any door along its 150-meter facade," explained Beatrice Grenier, director of strategic and international projects at the Fondation Cartier and co-curator of the inaugural exhibition. Natural light filters through the galleries, creating an inviting atmosphere for visitors.

At the heart of Nouvel's design is an innovative modular system featuring five movable platforms ranging from 2,150 to 3,900 square feet, constructed from recycled steel. Each platform can adjust to 11 different height positions, allowing for a wide range of spatial configurations. This cutting-edge infrastructure fosters adaptability and responsiveness, enabling the foundation to present diverse exhibitions in dynamic ways.

"We are situated directly across from the Louvre, an institution defined by a classical typology with linear galleries and chronological presentation," Grenier noted. "Rather than a traditional approach grounded in the narrative of objects, here we are immersed in the narrative of ideas." This architectural project extends Nouvel's long-standing vision of what a 21st-century museum should be: not a static repository for artworks, but a dynamic, experimental platform for cultural exchange and creative dialogue.

The new design features a glass canopy that recalls those that once lined Rue Saint-Honoré and Rue de Marengo, connecting the street experience with the interior. A transparent layout allows views through the entire building from Rue de Rivoli to Place du Palais-Royal, reinterpreting the traditional storefront window concept once used to display goods to passersby. Large ground-floor windows open the building to the city, establishing immediate visual continuity.

Of the 91,500 square feet accessible to the public, 69,965 square feet are devoted to exhibitions. The inaugural show, titled "Exposition Générale" (General Exhibition), alludes to the late 19th-century displays of the Grands Magasins du Louvre department store. This comprehensive presentation offers a deep dive into nearly 600 works by more than 100 artists who have shaped the foundation's four-decade history.

Notably absent from the current lineup is Nan Goldin, whose work has appeared at least twice at the foundation over the past decades, though she will be the focus of a dedicated show at the Grand Palais opening in March 2026. Raymond Hains's "Du Grand Louvre aux 3 Cartier" is also missing temporarily, scheduled to be shown in June 2026. This outdoor photographic installation, first exhibited at the Fondation Cartier in 1994, documents the modernization of the Louvre, including the construction of I.M. Pei's iconic glass pyramid.

The exhibition opens with "Machines d'architecture," reflecting the foundation's commitment to architecture as a multi-purpose space for experimentation. "The first platform can be seen as a monument-free extension of Paris with Agnès Varda's trunk, for example," said Grenier, referring to Varda's "Nini on her tree" (2019), a sculpture of a cat perched on a trunk from the foundation's 2019 "Nous les Arbres" show. Highlights include Alessandro Mendini's playful "Petite Cathédrale" (1999-2002), Junya Ishigami's ethereal "Chapel of Valley" (2018), and Freddy Mamani's site-specific "Salón de eventos," contrasted with the utopian urban visions of Bodys Isek Kingelez and Mamadou Cissé.

The second section, "Being Nature," shifts focus from the built environment to living ecosystems, bringing the complexity of forest systems into the museum. Works by Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami community raise urgent questions about Indigenous land and cultural preservation, while a site-specific soundscape by Soundwalk Collective and Bernie Krause immerses visitors in the sensory experience of the natural world. "Miracéus," a 2003-04 installation made of thousands of feathers collected by Solange Pessoa, stands as one of the foundation's most recent acquisitions and most memorable works.

"The Making Things" section explores contemporary creation through craft, materiality, and ancestral knowledge, featuring works from Andrea Branzi's open steel pavilion beneath the fifth platform to Olga de Amaral's monumental woven walls and Jean-Michel Othoniel's glass sculptures on the first floor. Each section can stretch across multiple gallery levels, allowing visitors to glimpse works from a distance before approaching them with new perspectives after seeing other objects.

"A Real World" presents speculative, sometimes dystopian, yet deeply imaginative visions of contemporary conditions. This section features Sarah Sze's "Tracing Fallen Sky," whose initial presentation was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. The installation, composed of a concave, mirror-like floor structure with stainless steel fragments, video projections, everyday objects, and an irregularly swinging pendulum, explores how the proliferation of digital images has transformed our relationship to time and memory.

Also on display is "EXIT" by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, based on an original concept by philosopher Paul Virilio. This data-driven installation uses scientific information to map various forms of global migration—economic, political, and environmental—and was updated in 2025 to coincide with the inaugural exhibition. Cai Guo-Qiang's "The Vague Border at the Edge of Time / Space Project" (1991), one of seven folding panels created using gunpowder, adds a bittersweet quality to the exhibition, representing the foundation's sustained loyalty to artists rather than strategic acquisitions.

Formafantasma, the Milan- and Rotterdam-based design studio founded by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, was commissioned to design the exhibition layout due to their long-term relationship with the foundation. The duo had previously featured as artists in the 2019 "Young Artists in Europe. Metamorphoses" show and continued their collaboration with presentations at the 2022 Triennale Milano and exhibitions "Cambio" and "Oltre Terra" in Paris. For "Exposition Générale," they created fabric displays to guide visitors through the artworks and exhibition signage, referencing the department store era when there was no hierarchy between mediums.

The new location allows the Fondation Cartier to expand its contemporary art program with additional spaces reflecting 21st-century artistic expression. A new auditorium will host performances, concerts, shows, and talks, providing a platform for creators to engage in dialogue as extensions of or counterpoints to exhibitions. A bookstore will feature cross-disciplinary works with emphasis on the foundation's publications developed in collaboration with artists.

Looking toward 2026, the foundation will inaugurate La Manufacture, a 3,230-square-foot educational space on the first floor dedicated to art education for all ages and backgrounds. Inspired by learning through gesture traditions, the space will emphasize the intelligence of the hand as a pedagogical foundation for workshops, creative programs, and educational initiatives. A high-end restaurant led by a world-renowned chef—whose identity remains closely guarded—will also open on-site, completing the foundation's transformation into a comprehensive cultural destination.