The Nuit Blanche is back, and it’s turning Paris and its Île-de-France region upside down this Saturday, June 6, 2026. For the occasion, contemporary art takes over the greater Paris area and leads us through the night with a lively, high-energy program. This unique, free, and open-to-all cultural event invites art lovers to discover original installations in the city’s most iconic venues, from dusk until dawn. A true must for anyone seeking a standout night out. Mark your calendars: you won’t want to miss it.
So, what can you see during this Nuit Blanche? Hundreds of venues are taking part in this cultural extravaganza, including the Petit Palais, Paris's museum of fine arts.
Nestled between the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Pont Alexandre III, the Petit Palais is keen to take part in the program for this 25th edition of Nuit Blanche. Built for the 1900 Universal Exposition, this Beaux-Arts architectural jewel houses a rich collection of artworks spanning from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century.
Its inner garden, a true oasis of calm in the heart of the city, along with its sumptuous galleries, provides a sublime setting you’ll rediscover in a new light during Nuit Blanche in Paris. So what should we expect for this 25th edition? Read on for the programme below!
Liquid Mirror, Installation / Wooden structure, mirror mosaic, 2026
Mathias Kiss invades the Petit Palais with Liquid Mirror, a site-specific installation conceived in dialogue with the building's 1900 architecture. The piece presents as a fragmented mirror surface made of square modules that seem to liquefy and drift through the space. Arranged along a precise grid, this reflective material nonetheless behaves fluidly: it slides downward, unfurls, and extends to the floor as if the monument itself were in motion. The modular fragmentation evokes pixel logic—the smallest unit of a digital image. Kiss translates a technology-era syntax into a heritage space: the pixel leaves the screen to become architectural matter. Where architecture proclaims stability and permanence, Liquid Mirror hints at a transitory state; the monument does not transform, it seems momentarily traversed by a luminous phenomenon. Placed on axis with L’Allégorie Le Triomphe des femmes by Georges Picard, the installation engages in dialogue with it. Where painted ascent is answered by a luminous descent; where a unified figure is met with multiplied presence. The mirror does not offer a new image, it captures the present. Visitors appear fractured, layered, integrated into the work. Within a White Night devoted to the theme of love, the piece becomes a relational experience. Love is not illustrated here; it manifests in the shared reflection, in the superimposition of silhouettes, in the presence of the other within one’s own image.
Mathias Kiss, a French visual artist of Hungarian origin, born in 1972 in Poissy, lives and works in Paris. Trained in painting and in the restoration of Historic Monuments (Louvre Museum), he founded in 2002 the Attilalou workshop. Since 2008, he has developed a distinctive body of work—Crumpled Mirror, Series 90°, Sky Painting—exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo and the Mobilier National. His practice blurs the lines between art craftsmanship, design, and contemporary art, reimagining classical codes to sculpt spaces that challenge perception.
A project supported by the Loo&Led Foundation for Contemporary Art, under the aegis of the Luxembourg Foundation, with the participation of the Petit Palais - City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts.
Le programme est mis à jour en fonction des annonces officielles.
Dates and Opening Time
On June 6, 2026
Location
Petit Palais
Avenue Winston Churchill
75008 Paris 8
Prices
Free
Official website
www.petitpalais.paris.fr
