TOP: Free exhibitions to see in Paris from October 21 to 27, 2026
Twelve free exhibitions to see in Paris and the Île-de-France region, from Pierre Jahan at the Jean-François Cazeau Gallery to the Centre Pompidou's "Fabrique de l'Art" in Massy, open to the public for the first time.
PIERRE JAHAN AT THE JEAN-FRANÇOIS CAZEAU GALLERY He photographed Parisian statues sent to be melted down during the Occupation, and the cruelty of these decapitated bronzes has lost none of its power. The Jean-François Cazeau Gallery retraces a broader career, from Surrealism to post-war construction sites, where Pierre Jahan always retained his taste for the incongruous detail. Free admission.
JEAN-FRANÇOIS CAZEAU GALLERY
From October 24 to December 23, 2026
THOMAS HOUSEAGO AND THÉO MERCIER AT REIFFERS ART INITIATIVES
Two sculptors whose work is not expected to be displayed together: the Englishman carves massive totems that seem to have emerged from an excavation, while the Frenchman stages bodies of sand ready to collapse. Reiffers Art Initiatives brings them together on Rue des Acacias, in a confrontation where matter becomes both monument and dust. Free admission.
REIFFERS ART INITIATIVES
From October 23 to December 12, 2026
DAN FLAVIN, EUROPEAN COUPLES, AT GAGOSIAN AT LE BOURGET
For the first time in France, and only the third time in the world, the nine luminous works of the European Couples series are brought together. Colored neon lights placed directly in the corners of the walls, and light that overflows from the sculpture to repaint the entire room. Free entry to the hangar at Le Bourget.
GAGOSIAN LE BOURGET
From October 18, 2026 to April 3, 2027
Street Art Denfert, one hundred artists in the former Zara store at Denfert-Rochereau
The exhibition was initially scheduled to run for ten days in the crypt of the Madeleine church. It will now occupy twenty-two days and 2,400 m² 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 admission with registration.
STREET ART DENFERT
From October 3 to 25, 2026
THE CENTRE POMPIDOU IN THE ÎLE-DE-FRANCE REGION OPENS ITS ART FACTORY
The Centre Pompidou is showing the public its Massy building for the first time, where the works in the collection are restored, studied, and preserved. Three weekends only, free and by reservation, to see behind the scenes of the museum rather than the museum itself.
CENTRE POMPIDOU FRANCILIEN, MASSY
October 17 & 18, 24 & 25, October 31 & November 1, 2026
CREATING A VASE, AN ART IN ITSELF, AT THE JAD IN SÈVRES
Twenty-one variations on a single form, entrusted to contemporary designers by the Jardin des métiers d’art et du design (Garden of Arts and Crafts and Design). Ceramics, glass, metal, wood: the vase as a set exercise, and twenty-one ways to break free from it. Free admission to the former Sèvres porcelain factory.
JAD, GARDEN OF ARTS AND DESIGN, SÈVRES
From October 16, 2026 to February 28, 2027
HEY! FABULOUS FAMILY AT CHÂTEAU DU VAL FLEURY Val Fleury welcomes the magazine HEY! and its family of artists from the margins: outsider art, pop surrealism, tattoo design, cabinet of curiosities. Works that you won't find in galleries or museums, brought together with free admission in Gif-sur-Yvette.
LE VAL FLEURY, GIF-SUR-YVETTE
From October 16, 2026 to January 31, 2027
PIETRANTONIO, BETWEEN THE MESH OF THE WORLD, AT THE FAIDHERBE GALLERY
Fishing nets, a riot of colors: Pietrantonio Paolino d’Errico paints the shores and the gestures of work at sea. The Faidherbe Gallery is dedicating a month-long exhibition to him, with free admission. A painting of the working Mediterranean, far removed from postcards.
FAIDHERBE GALLERY
From October 15 to November 14, 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.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART OF 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 narrative held together from beginning to end.
INSTITUTE OF ISLAM CULTURES - HERE LÉON
From September 26, 2026 to February 7, 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 forms, and the Weismann machine restored in 1975: Maison Michel reveals its craft rather than its shop windows, 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 matter of the atelier.
THE GALLERY OF 19M
From September 23 to December 13 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 perspective 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
