TOP: Free exhibitions to see in Paris from October 7 to 13, 2026
Eight recent openings, all free to see in Paris, from the hundred artists of the former Zara store in Denfert-Rochereau to the four centuries of marine art at the Château de Vincennes. Nothing here costs money.
Street Art Denfert: One Hundred Artists in the Former Zara Store in Denfert-Rochereau
The exhibition was originally scheduled to run for ten days in the crypt of the Madeleine Church. It will now occupy twenty-two days and 2,400 square meters across three levels, in a former Zara store whose windows face Avenue du Général-Leclerc. One hundred artists, an empty commercial space transformed into a canvas for painting, and free entry with registration.
STREET ART DENFERT
From October 3 to 25, 2026
Marcel Duchamp Prize: The Four Nominees at the Museum of Modern Art
There are four of them, and one will receive the Marcel Duchamp Prize on October 22, during Art Week. Until then, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris is exhibiting the finalists of this 26th edition in its collections, therefore free of charge: the embroidered fabrics of Joël Andrianomearisoa, the statistics of precariousness transformed into sculptures by the duo Brognon Rollin, the lives on the margins documented by photographer Laura Henno, and the Afrofuturist mythologies of Josefa Ntjam, the youngest nominee. Four months to form your own jury.
MUSÉE D'ART MODERNE DE PARIS
From October 2, 2026 to February 7, 2027
The Ball of the Ogresses at the Institute of Islamic Cultures
Aïcha Kandisha, the Moroccan ogress whose children are threatened, protects as much as she frightens. Thirteen female artists take hold of her at the Institute of Islamic Cultures and overturn the figure of the monster: what was used to keep girls quiet becomes a power to be claimed. From Nil Yalter to Kubra Khademi, paintings, videos, and installations compose a cohesive narrative from beginning to end.
INSTITUTE OF ISLAM CULTURES - HERE LÉON
From September 26, 2026 to February 7, 2027
Rayane Mcirdi, Happy Retirement Dad, at the Frac Île-de-France, Le Plateau
Forty years in the factory, and one last day. Rayane Mcirdi filmed his father's retirement, then deconstructed the film for Le Plateau: chapters spread throughout the space, scenes that echo each other from one room to another, so that you never really sit down. The camera remains at shoulder height, allowing what is unspoken to emerge.
FRAC ÎLE-DE-FRANCE, LE PLATEAU
From September 24, 2026 to February 21, 2027
Metamorphoses, the hats of Maison Michel, at the 19M Gallery
Four rooms to follow a hat from raw straw to the head that wears it. Felt, wooden shapes, and the Weismann machine restored in 1975: Maison Michel reveals its craft rather than its display cases, and the 19M continues to showcase the work before the object. We watch hands grappling with a resistant material, and fashion once again becomes a workshop affair.
THE GALLERY OF 19M
From September 23 to December 13 2026
From Figurative to Abstract: Sixteen Painters and a Sculptor at the Galerie de l'Europe
A family reunion on the rue de Seine: the Galerie de l'Europe is exhibiting sixteen painters and a sculptor side by side, the observation of reality on one side, the pure experience of matter on the other, and in between, a slope much gentler than one might expect. A dense exhibition, to be seen in half an hour between two galleries in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, until October 17.
GALLERY OF EUROPE
From September 22 to October 17, 2026
Cast off! 400 years of the Navy at the Château de Vincennes
Four centuries of the French Navy are contained within the King's Pavilion: models, uniforms, navigational instruments, and archives brought out of storage. The château tells less about battles than about the administration of a fleet, its engineers, and its charts. Free entry, and the keep right next door to extend the visit.
CHÂTEAU DE VINCENNES - PAVILLON DU ROI
From September 19 to December 23, 2026
Everyone Should Have a Home: Faces of Survival at the Irish Cultural Centre
Faces, makeshift shelters, reconstructed interiors: the exhibition explores survival through the domestic traces it leaves behind. The approach is documentary, the gaze never simplistic, and the cobbled courtyard on Rue des Irlandais provides a fitting silence for the experience. Free admission, in the heart of the Latin Quarter.
IRISH CULTURAL CENTRE
From September 18 to October 28, 2026
