This year, for the new edition of Heritage Days, the MAC/VAL – the contemporary art museum of Val-de-Marne – invites you to explore its collections and take part in workshops suitable for both youngsters and adults. The museum will open its doors free of charge on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, 2026.
For two days, the MAC/VAL organizes multidisciplinary events and invites you to visit unusual spaces that are usually closed to the public!
If you don’t know the MAC/VAL, Heritage Days offer a wonderful chance to discover this museum in the Val-de-Marne! It is the only institution in France dedicated to artistic creation since the 1950s, home to 2,500 works purchased by the Val-de-Marne Departmental Fund for Contemporary Art, all kept right here in the museum. In addition, MAC/VAL frequently supports artists by offering them a multi-month residency.
The museum offers a rich calendar of exhibitions throughout the year, as well as workshops, informal gatherings, performances, and encounters... And for Heritage Days? See the program below.
Discovering MAC VAL’s Reserves
MAC VAL to exceptionally open the doors to its storerooms!
Usually unseen and little known to the public, museum storerooms form the mysterious, hidden heart of the institution. The museum’s collection is regularly expanded through acquisitions, gifts, deposits and now totals nearly 2,500 works, of which only a small portion is exhibited in the collection displays. MAC VAL’s distinctive feature is that it stores the entire collection within the building itself. It is in the walls of the storerooms that the museum’s dynamism draws its energy and where the bulk of the work on the collection takes place: study, research, inventory, recording, cataloging, consultation, lending, restoration, maintenance, packaging, photography, and exhibition preparation…
Participation requirements: Same-day registration at the museum reception, subject to availability, up to 1 hour before the scheduled visit. Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 14:00–15:00, 16:00–17:00 | Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 14:00–15:00, 16:00–17:00
"The Floor"
Musical reading by Nicolas Dégremont, accompanied by Zoé Saubat. Adapted from Perrine Le Querrec’s novel Le plancher, echoing the work Le plancher de Jeannot featured in the exhibition “Le genre idéal.”
For the first time, Nicolas Dégremont, joined by cellist Zoé Saubat, will voice Jeannot’s words beside the actual floor, creating a rare dialogue among text, music, and the surface beneath our feet.
“Le Plancher” recounts the true, almost unbelievable story of a work of art miraculously rediscovered in a Pyrenean farmhouse: a floor carved in the early 1970s by a young Béarnais farmer, Jean Crampilh-Broucaret, known as Jeannot. Reclusive and buried in his own world, Jeannot spends his short life trying to construct himself and find a place in the world. After his mother’s death in 1971, he chisels into rough wood 208 words—a cry of pain and rebellion. This stark gesture shocks the art world: collectors, psychoanalysts, and writers, including Perrine Le Querrec, who turned it into a narrative in 2005.
“To write ‘Le Plancher’ is to approach madness up close, to permit the raw word and syntax to run wild, to explore new paths of thought and writing, to defy taboos. It is also to give a body and a voice to the one whom everyone turned away from.” Perrine Le Querrec
Participation conditions: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Saturday, 19 September 2026 — 2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Family outing to the exhibition "Le genre idéal"
Step by step, the youngest visitors and their companions make the museum their own, watching the colors, shapes, and patterns. Guided by our speakers, these tours invite everyone to look together, share words, and put emotions into words.
Adults and children aged 4 and up
Participation conditions: Reservations are recommended by Friday at 12:00 PM: reservation@macval.fr or call 01 43 91 64 23, then on-site subject to availability. - Free | Reservation required - reservation@macval.fr
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026, 3:00–4:00 PM | Sunday, September 20, 2026, 3:00–4:00 PM
The major transformations of SMITH's exhibition "Ici grand ouvert"
A steady program of visits, encounters, performances, screenings, gestures and actions rhythm the exhibition "Ici grand ouvert".
Under the banner "Désidération(s)", the program unfolds in both small and large metamorphoses, true rituals of collective transformation.
With :
Melissa Laveaux, singer-songwriter (live concert)
Laure Murat, essayist
Matthieu Potte-Bonneville, Director of Culture and Creation at the Centre Pompidou
Jean-Philippe Uzan, cosmologist, Research Director at the National Centre for Scientific Research
Radio Levania
Participation requirements: Free to participate | No reservation required
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Artist's Book Workshop "Rouge Variation"
Artist’s book workshop with Céline Louvet.
A hands-on, meet-and-workshop on the artist’s book. The MAC VAL documentation center invites creators of artist books to lead a workshop for little ones (ages 5 and up) with their parents. These sessions reveal the many forms artist editions can take.
Workshops for adults and children aged 5 and up
Participation requirements: Limited to 15 children with one or two accompanying adults. Pre-register at the Documentation Center. Free of charge | Reservation required - cdm@macval.fr, 01 43 91 14 64
Schedule: Saturday, September 19, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM
Workshop "Dreamed Constellations"
Do you know the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, Pegasus? For ages, humans have linked stars together to form pictures—that's what constellations are! Create your own constellation and atmospheric goggles using images by artist SMITH in the exhibition "Ici grand ouvert".
From age 3
Open continuously with free admission
Participation conditions: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 - 11:00 ⤏ 12:30
Ongoing workshops on artists' books
Ongoing exhibition of artist books from the documentation center’s collection and its mini-workshops, with open access.
Workshops open to everyone (children and adults).
Continuously on display and freely accessible.
Participation conditions: Free of charge | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM
A meeting between Armance Léger and Camille Paulhan
A meeting between Armance Léger and Camille Paulhan on the work from Michel Journiac’s collection Messe pour un corps and the collective volume Le corps transfiguré.
Participation conditions : Free admission, subject to availability - No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Architectural Tour
An architectural stroll that invites you to rediscover the museum’s distinctive character as a place—the lines, the spaces, the atmospheres, and even its hidden corners offering a new vantage point.
All audiences
From 11 years old
Participation requirements: Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM
The major metamorphoses of SMITH's exhibition "Ici grand ouvert"
A steady program of visits, encounters, performances, screenings, gestures, and actions that gives rhythm to the exhibition "Ici grand ouvert".
Under the title “Désidération(s)”, this program unfolds in both small and large metamorphoses, true rituals of collective transformation.
With:
Zoë Dubus
Queer As Us – Our Story (listening session)
Radio Levania
Participation requirements: Free | No reservation required
Times: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Guided tour "The Keys to Contemporary Art"
Painting, drawing, sculpture... contemporary art unfolds before your eyes. An original stroll-through, where each work helps us better understand the stakes of contemporary art: material, object, space…
All audiences
From 11 years
Participation terms: Advance booking is recommended until Friday before 12:00 noon: reservation@macval.fr or phone 01 43 91 64 23, then on site subject to available space — Free | No reservation required
Schedule: Sunday, September 20, 2026 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM
A great program to discover without delay! You can also take a look at the events taking place at various cultural and historical sites in the Val-de-Marne.
Heritage Days 2026 in Val-de-Marne (94): cultural treasures to discover
Heritage Days are back on 19 and 20 September 2026 in Val-de-Marne. To mark the occasion, the region’s numerous castles and museums will throw open their doors for guided tours, workshops and brand-new activities. [Read more]
Dates and Opening Time
From September 19, 2026 to September 20, 2026
Location
MAC/VAL, Val-de-Marne Museum of Contemporary Art
Place de la Libération
94400 Vitry sur Seine
Route planner
Prices
Free
Official website
www.macval.fr
More information
Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Heritage Days 2026 in Val-de-Marne (94): cultural treasures to discover
