Fondation Cartier reveals plans for new Paris space designed by Jean Nouvel

One of France’s most high-profile art foundations, Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, has revealed the architectural plans for its new site in the heart of Paris. The vast new gallery, located at the Place du Palais-Royal opposite the Louvre, is due to open late 2025.

The new building, part of the former Louvre des Antiquaires complex, will be reconfigured by the high-profile French architect Jean Nouvel, boosting the capital’s burgeoning contemporary art scene. Works drawn from the vast collection, comprising almost 4,000 works by artists such as Chéri Samba, Nan Goldin and Raymond Depardon, will be shown in the new space.

What will the new gallery be like?

Nouvel’s design “provides for the perpetual renewal of the space”, says a project statement. The new building encompasses 6,500 square metres of exhibition space, including five “mobile platforms” which can be modified. “Their positioning enables the creation of layered vertical spaces which can reach up to thirteen meters high,” adds the statement. More than 1,000 square metres of walkways will overlook the platform areas.

Jean Nouvel says in a statement: “The Fondation Cartier will likely be the institution offering the greatest differentiation of its spaces, the most diverse exhibition forms and viewpoints. Here, it is possible to do what cannot be done elsewhere, by shifting the system of the act of showing.” The cost of transforming the historic site is undisclosed.

The large bay windows in the building look out on to some of the capital’s most important historical thoroughfares, such as the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. As part of the Fondation Cartier’s 40th anniversary this year, visitors to the Place du Palais-Royal can see portraits of artists emblazoned across the windows, such as Agnès Varda, Claudia Andujar and Ron Mueck, who have worked with the Fondation Cartier.

What is the Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain?

The Fondation Cartier opened in Jouy-en-Josas in the in the Île-de-France region in October 1984 headed by Marie-Claude Beaud with Alain-Dominique Perrin as president. Chris Dercon was appointed managing director in 2022.

Nouvel designed the Fondation Cartier’s current home, the glass and steel building on the Boulevard Raspail in Montparnasse which opened in 1994. A spokesperson says that “the Fondation Cartier will leave Boulevard Raspail and move to Palais-Royal once it opens. Currently, we have no information regarding the future use of the [Raspail] location once they leave.”

Alain-Dominique Perrin insists that there is a “radical separation” between the Fondation Cartier’s activities and the commercial development of Maison Cartier, stressing also that “from its creation, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has based its activity around some major principles.

“The first [principle] is the central position granted to artists and artistic production, including artists already known to the general public as well as emerging figures. The second is the focus on transversality: the Foundation Cartier is a space dedicated to all forms of creation, from painting to photography, architecture to film, design to fashion, and more”.

In recent years, Paris has become a mecca for private art foundations. Bernard Arnault, the owner of the LVMH luxury goods conglomerate and the founder of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, opened his contemporary art museum in the Bois de Boulogne in 2014. Meanwhile the billionaire collector François Pinault expanded his art empire by launching his Bourse de Commerce museum in the city in 2021.