Paris's next big art opening isn't in the Marais or across from the Louvre. It's on a slim island in the Seine called Île Seguin, just past the city limits at Boulogne-Billancourt, where Renault ran a vast car factory for most of the 20th century. From 17 October 2026, that industrial story gets an artistic sequel: Large, a 5,000-square-metre contemporary art centre with 2,500 square metres of exhibition space.
The building alone justifies the trip. Catalan studio RCR Arquitectes, winners of the 2017 Pritzker Prize, worked with French practice CALQ on a structure that stacks galleries above one another, linked by monumental escalators and corridors, with a pillar-free main hall reaching 14 metres high. Terraces frame views over the river towards the hills of Meudon. Crucially, about 40% of the space is ticket-free — an amphitheatre-style atrium for talks, a bookshop, a kids' art area and a café called Extra Large with a panoramic terrace. Anyone 26 or under gets into exhibitions free; otherwise full-price tickets are €15.
The inaugural show taps directly into the island's history. Moteur Imaginaire (Imaginary Engine), curated by Cecilia Alemani of 2022 Venice Biennale fame, uses the Renault factory legacy to explore how humans relate to machines and the automobile. It gathers 120 works by 55 artists from 23 countries — Jean Dubuffet, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and Victor Vasarely among them — plus 17 new commissions. The standouts sound gloriously odd: Bertrand Lavier slathering a Renault Formula One car in thick paint strokes, Bianca Bondi transforming a Renault 12 chassis with salt, water and plants, and Ghanaian coffin-maker Paa Joe, working with his son, carving a coffin modelled on the 1899 Renault Type B. The exhibition runs until 7 March 2027.
Large is also the anchor for something bigger. The wider Pointe des Arts development spreads over more than 53,000 square metres and already includes La Seine Musicale, a concert venue, plus an eight-screen Pathé cinema. A park with over 30 planned sculptures, new restaurants and a four-star hotel are on the way — enough to fill a full day without ever crossing back into central Paris.
For travellers, this is a fresh reason to revisit a city many have already ticked off. Paris's big three museums aren't going anywhere, but an island that traded car assembly lines for contemporary art offers something the centre can't: newness. Ride line 9 to the end, spend a morning at Large, catch a Friday late opening if you can, and you'll have seen a side of Paris most visitors never reach.
