Hélia Paukner, heritage curator and head of the Contemporary Art department at Mucem in Marseille since 2019, has been appointed artistic director of the Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale and director of the Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art (macLYON). She will take up her position on February 1, 2027, succeeding Isabelle Bertolotti, who has held these responsibilities since 2018. Announced on October 20, this appointment comes as the 18th edition of the Lyon event takes place.
Recruitment was led by the City of Lyon, in association with the Ministry of Culture, the Metropolis and the Lyon Biennale. The new director will work alongside Cécile Bourgeat, general director of the Biennale, chaired by Laurent Bayle. Its mission will notably be to develop international cooperation and continue the rapprochement between the two institutions.
A graduate of German, a former student of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Hélia Paukner followed training as a heritage curator at the National Heritage Institute in 2017-2018. She began her museum career at the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, as a scientific assistant to the management, before joining the Mucem in 2019.
In Marseille, she curated several exhibitions devoted to contemporary artists. In 2020-2021, she designed “Affleurements”, as part of the European program Excavating Contemporary Archaeology, bringing together institutions from Marseille, Aarhus, Antwerp and Nicosia.
In 2022-2023, she organized with Philippe Dagen the first French retrospective of Ghada Amer, presented jointly at the Mucem, the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the Vieille Charité. She also participated in Clément Cogitore’s exhibitions and in the design of the permanent “Mediterranese” course, inaugurated in 2024. More recently, she curated the carte blanche for Laure Prouvost at Fort Saint-Jean in 2025.
Hélia Paukner replaces Isabelle Bertolotti, who has directed the macLYON since 2018 after having been responsible for its exhibitions from 1995. The latter notably developed “Rendez-vous”, an event dedicated to young international creation, and ensured the artistic direction of the 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2026 editions of the Biennale.
Founded in 1984 by Thierry Raspail, macLYON has been located at the Cité Internationale since 1995, in a building designed by Renzo Piano. It has 3,000 m² of exhibition space and today houses more than 2,000 works, including numerous monumental installations. Since 2018, it has belonged to the Lyon art museum cluster, formed with the Museum of Fine Arts and placed under the direction of Sylvie Ramond.
Created in 1991, the Contemporary Art Biennale is organized alternately with the Dance Biennale, born in 1984. Its 18th edition, opened on September 19 and visible until December 13, 2026, is under the curatorship of Catherine Nichols. Entitled “Moving from one dream to another”, it explores the relationships between art and economy, through several sites in the metropolis, including the Grandes Locos, the Fabric Museum and the macLYON.
The next edition, scheduled for 2028 according to the biennial rhythm of the event, will be the first prepared under the artistic direction of Hélia Paukner.
