Paris. The 24th Nuit Blanche edition was scheduled for June 7. The choice of Valérie Donzelli has surprised: it is the first time that an actress and director has been invited to ensure its artistic direction. The expansion of Nuit Blanche to the Metropolis of Grand Paris concerns this year 30 municipalities, but also, again, the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. The concept continues to seduce international cities. Since its creation by Christophe Girard, former culture assistant to Bertrand Delanoë then Anne Hidalgo, and her first edition in 2002 signed by Jean Blaise, Nuit Blanche has evolved.
“Shake the atmosphere of the city”
“When Christophe Girard came to see me in Nantes, it was a question of programming the formula he had imagined from an exceptional night in all of Paris”, Recalls the creator of the Les lit, the unique and travel place in Nantes. “A night that would allow audiences often intimidated by contemporary art to discover it in an unusual heritage and artists to show their work”, underlines Christophe Girard. “In my mind, the number of editions had to be limited as for the lit, festival envisaged on six editions in order to arouse interest, the frustration of the public, specifies Jean Blaise. The principle of inviting artists of a large port to invest Nantes from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. was a great success. For Nuit Blanche, the bet was to bring the public into the unknown, unusual places of the city and in very emblematic places with unexpected, unique artistic proposals that jostled the atmosphere of the city. »»
The first edition scheduled for the night of October 5 to 6, 2002, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., revolved around thirty creations (artistic installations, shows, projections, concerts, etc.) distributed in 25 places and around fifty projects associated with museums, but also the headquarters of the Communist Party, the Montmartre funicular, the Estienne School, the Estienne and the School.
Oenology lessons by Dominique Hutin and Arthur H concert in the subsoil in old funeral pumps in the city (future “Centquatre”), installation of a bed by Sophie Calle on the 4th floor of the Eiffel Tower to collect the stories of people of the public, windows and windows of rue Oberkampf revisited (Yann Toma, Isabelle Lévénez), Accessible until late in Night, T2 Tower of the BNF transformed into a giant game boy…: the entirely free programming, organized in the 20th arrondissement of the capital, had welcomed 500,000 people according to the organizers, known with long hours of waiting for certain places and cost 1.4 million euros funded by the city and various patrons.
Contemporary art profiles to management
The assault on the knife of Bertrand Delanoë at 2:30 a.m. in the village hall of the town hall of Paris, open to the public, does not start the will of the mayor to reiterate the operation. Jean Blaise, however, declined the proposal made to him to ensure the second edition. His organization was entrusted to six commissioners including friend Barak, Camille Morineau and Suzanne Pagé, more specialized profiles than hers, at the crossroads.
Except for the return of Jean Blaise in 2005 and the choice of Didier Fusillier for the 2019 edition, José-Manuel Gonçalvès for those of 2014 and 2015 or Kitty Hartl for 2022 and 2023, the artistic direction of Nuit Blanche, to the map entrusted to Valérie Donzelli, was mainly ensured by men and women of contemporary art in the image of Claire Tancons for the 2024 edition. Many of them are, or have been, institution officials such as the Duos Nicolas Bourriaud-Jérôme Sans (2006) then Alexia Fabre-Frank Lamy (2009 and 2011), Martin Bethenod (2010), Laurent Le Bon (2012), Chiara Parisi-Julie Pellegrin (2013), Jean de Loisy (2016). Hervé Chandès joined forces in 2008 with Ronald Chammah, producer and film distributor. If recent editions tend to balance the representation of women in artistic direction (18 against 26 men), the choice of Valérie Donzelli for Nuit Blanche 2025 therefore. Carine Rolland, assistant to the town hall of Paris in charge of culture, explains it “By his work known cinematography and his convictions on living together. The will was not to offer artistic direction to someone who would give a notoriety burst, but to diversify the programming ”.
A program which, since its first edition, has expanded a quarter in number of projects (despite a slight decrease this year – 114 against 125 in 2024), but which especially recorded in 2025 a significant decrease of those under the strict perimeter of the artistic direction: 11 only on 114, including 5 creations specially for this white night (thus a film and an installation of Michel Gondry, and a sound path Donzelli). Or twice less than in 2024. The associated programming thus constitutes almost all of the artistic projects, and it is mainly proposed by the museums and cultural establishment of the city: 80 out of 103-including “Foreign cultural centers invited to participate in Nuit Blanche, more and more numerous”, underlines the city of Paris. The 23 other projects proposed in heritage places, municipal equipment, third lieux or in public space emanate from artists selected within the framework of the call for projects launched by the City Cultural Affairs Department; This received 100 applications in 2025 and allocated a budget of 122,000 euros to all selected artists.
If the Nuit Blanche still reserves high and amazing moments, it has moved away from its initial format. Faced with the dissatisfaction of residents caused by noise pollution, it has reduced its duration and almost all events is not scheduled beyond midnight-exceptionally 2 hours in the morning. At the same time, its 2025 budget, of 1 million euros to which are added 150,000 euros in patronage, fell compared to that of 2013 where it amounted to more than 1.6 million euros, including 1.2 million funded by the City and 400,000 euros by private partners. If the share devoted to creation is not predefined in the budget, the city of Paris admits to renouncing “Editions with as many works produced” as possible “.
A widening of territory and a change of calendar
Nuit Blanche has also become a reflection of political agreements marked in 2019 the expansion of the event at the Metropolis of Greater Paris; Patrick Ollier, its president, then granted 200,000 euros to the six participating municipalities: Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, Gennevilliers, Gentilly, Rueil-Malmaison and Vincennes. Their number today amounts to 30, that of artistic projects at 120, and the financial participation of the metropolis in programming at 580,000 euros out of a total budget of 1.2 million euros.
The participation of Rouen and Le Havre since 2023 is also political decisions, a product of the Seine Axis agreement. This system created at the end of 2022 by the Metropolis of Grand Paris, the City of Paris, the Rouen-Normandie metropolitan area and Le Havre-Seine Métropole makes it possible to coordinate economic projects linked in particular to transport and energy.
The year 2023 is also that of a change of calendar for Nuit Blanche, moved from October to June following a consultation launched on the occasion of the 20 years of the event with Parisians and Metropolitans to choose the ideal period. “They are 64.5 % to have opted for the month of June”, It is said to the city of Paris without specifying the number of voters. The prospect of the Olympic Games was certainly not unrelated to this decision. The 2024 edition was thus one of the highlights of cultural Olympiad, including a number of projects binding art and sport.
This trip from autumn to spring leaves a number of those who have worked in its realization, this for three reasons: May-June is a rich period in Paris in artistic proposals and events: the Night of Museums, the Fête de la Musique or We Love Green, Festival de Musique organized for ten years on the first weekend of June and that comes Night White Telescoper; Everyone is outside, on the terraces of cafes, in the parks. The night fell late, not before 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The projects must integrate this parameter, which denies the original concept. According to the City of Paris, this new date has not changed the level of attendance, estimated at 1 million people each year. According to the “2025 barometer of the public of museums and heritage places”, the Nuit Blanche is however only known by 28 % of the French, far last the days of the heritage (63 %), its notoriety amounting to 49 % among Ile -de -France and its attendance at 12 %.
