Île Seguin: This tiny island just outside Paris is about to become the city’s newest cultural destination

On October 17, 2026, Large, a new contemporary art center dedicated primarily to the French art scene, will open its doors. The 1.25-acre building contains nearly 27,000 square feet of exhibition space spread across several levels, including a vast, pillar-free main gallery rising as high as 46 feet.

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 4,000-square-foot atrium before traveling 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% of the building will be accessible without a ticket, with an amphitheater-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.

The center’s inaugural exhibition, titled, “Moteur Imaginaire (Imaginary Engine),” has close ties to the island’s industrial past.

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.