On 17 October 2026, Large, a new contemporary art centre dedicated primarily to the French art scene, will open its doors. The 5,000-square-metre building contains 2,500 square metres of exhibition space spread across several levels, including a vast, pillar-free main gallery rising as high as 14 metres.
The building itself is reason enough to visit. Designed by Catalan studio RCR Arquitectes – winner of the 2017 Pritzker Architecture Prize – alongside French practice CALQ, it plays with light, scale and views across the Seine. Visitors enter through a 370-square-metre atrium before travelling upwards through the building via corridors, monumental escalators and galleries overlooking one another. Outside, terraces look towards the river and the hills of Meudon.
Large isn’t intended to function solely as a museum, either. Around 40 per cent of the building will be accessible without a ticket, with an amphitheatre-like atrium designed for talks and performances, a bookshop, a children’s art space and Extra Large, a café with a panoramic terrace overlooking the Seine. Entry to exhibitions will also be free for visitors aged 26 and under, among several other groups.
Aurelen Mole ,Aurelien MOLE 2026
Its inaugural exhibition, Moteur Imaginaire (Imaginary Engine), couldn’t be more closely connected to the island’s past. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the Italian curator behind the 2022 Venice Biennale, it draws on Île Seguin’s history as the home of Renault’s factory and explores our relationship with machines, industry and the automobile. The exhibition will bring together 120 works by 55 artists from 23 countries, including pieces by Jean Dubuffet, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and Victor Vasarely, alongside 17 new commissions.