Paris. Not easy to find your way around the calendar of the various reopening of the Grand Palais: the nave has been open to the public since the summer of 2024, and has regained its programming of events and fairs; Two exhibition spaces have been exploited since winter, arousing a craze from the public who came en masse, in particular for the courses “Chiharu Shiota, The Soul Tresh” and “From the heart in hand: Dolce & Gabbana”. But behind the nave, the Grand Palais is still a huge project, which should last at least until the end of 2026 for the part of the Palais de la Découverte, the scientific museum managed by Universcience.
Under the sign of “artificial intelligence”
Next June, common spaces at the Grand Palais-Réunion of national museums (GP-RMN, formerly RMN-GP) and in Universcience (the two establishments that share the premises) will finally be accessible: a vast reception area in the intermediate zone which connects the nave to the Palais d’Antin will be open to the public, just like the “Children’s Palace”, a course combining art and science and intended for the old audience, Equestrian merry-go-round in the basement of the Grand Palais.
Just as the GP-RMN, Universcience will not expect full delivery of its developments in the Palais d’Antin, scheduled for the end of 2026, to start deploying its programming in the premises. In the Children’s Palace, GP-RMN and Universcience are working at their first collaboration around the theme of “transparency”, for the reopening of June 11. The exhibition, which is aimed at children aged 2 to 10, will be presented for two years, until August 2027.
3D projection of the future “Test” laboratory, devoted to scientific manipulations.
© Phileas / Casson Mann / Cros & Patras and Loma
But it is above all with the exhibition devoted to “artificial intelligence”, co-produced with the Quai des Savoirs cultural center in Toulouse, that the Palais de la Découverte will re-impress itself in its historic setting on Franklin-Roosevelt avenue, after five years of exile in “Les étincelles” temporary installed near the André-Citroën park, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Treating from a subject that could not be more topical, this exhibition will be a real test for the new line of the Palais de la Découverte, which will no longer be content to disclose the fundamentals of science, but will also be a place of presentation of scientific news.
This route will also settle in June in the temporary exhibition spaces of the Palais de la Découverte, before the final development work of the scenography. These will start in October this year, to end a year later. This project at 10 million euros is carried out by a group led by the architectural agency Philéas, and associates two scenography agencies: Casson Mann for general scenography, and Cros & Patras for the realization of “manips”, these scientific experiences which are the signing of the Palais de la Découverte.
To finalize this development, Universcience has announced the arrival of two new patrons: the Multinational Automobile Stellantis and SLB, a company specializing in the equipment necessary for the extraction of fossil fuels. Two pedigrees who question with a scientific museum.
