The 18th Lyon Biennale – Contemporary Art will open to the public on Sept. 19, 2026, bringing 120 artists and 400 works to 11 locations across Lyon and its metropolitan area. Running through Dec. 13, the edition, titled “Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another,” will extend beyond museums into former industrial buildings, public spaces, a hotel courtyard, a car park and a metro station.
Professional visitors will receive first access during preview days on Sept. 17 and 18, before the public opening. Accreditation applications remain open until Sept. 16 and include entry to participating venues during both preview days, as well as access to the Biennale on its first two public days, Sept. 19 and 20.
The format places the exhibition in direct contact with Lyon’s working urban environment rather than concentrating the programme in a single exhibition complex. Metro Line B’s Gare Part-Dieu station and the Parking LPA Saint-Antoine are among the listed sites, alongside established cultural institutions such as the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, known as macLYON, and the Musée des Confluences.
Three sites anchor the 2026 programme
Les Grandes Locos, macLYON and the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs will serve as the Biennale’s three principal anchors. The remaining venues create a route across the city and surrounding metropolitan area, connecting contemporary art with Lyon’s architectural, industrial and civic spaces.
The full venue list includes Les Grandes Locos; macLYON; the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs; the traboules in the Croix-Rousse slopes; the Jardin du Musée des Beaux-Arts; IAC – Institut d'art contemporain / Frac Rhône-Alpes; the Musée des Confluences; Fondation Bullukian; Parking LPA Saint-Antoine; Gare Part-Dieu station on Metro Line B; and Cour des Loges, A Radisson Collection Hotel.
Isabelle Bertolotti is the artistic director of the edition, while Catherine Nichols is the curator. Organizers describe the exhibition as a city-based journey through contrasting kinds of space, from heritage sites and galleries to transit infrastructure and former industrial premises.
That structure gives the Biennale a logistical scale beyond a conventional museum exhibition. Visitors will need to move between central Lyon, the Croix-Rousse district and locations elsewhere in the metropolitan area, making the route itself part of how the programme is encountered.
The public can buy advance Biennale Passes through Sept. 18 for €20, compared with a standard €25 price. The pass terms announced by organizers cover access to the participating exhibition venues, though individual events may carry separate entry conditions.
Professional days include meetings and networking events
The Sept. 17-18 preview programme is designed for arts professionals and includes meetings, artist conversations, international encounters and networking sessions, according to the Biennale’s programme materials. Several of those events are scheduled for Les Grandes Locos.
Accredited professionals are also invited to an opening reception at Les Grandes Locos on Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. The reception is invitation-only, even for accredited attendees.
The professional office can be contacted at info@labiennaledelyon.com or +33 (0)4 27 46 65 67. Accreditation is required for entry during the preview days, meaning members of the public will need to wait until Sept. 19 to access the main exhibition programme.
Lyon’s Biennale has historically used the city as more than a backdrop, and the 2026 venue selection continues that approach. Exhibiting work in a metro station, car park and hotel courtyard would expose contemporary art to audiences who may not plan a museum visit, while placing demands on artists and curators to adapt work to spaces built for movement, commerce or everyday services.
The inclusion of the Croix-Rousse traboules also gives the programme access to Lyon’s distinctive covered passageways. These semi-public architectural spaces can change the relationship between artwork and viewer: circulation becomes less controlled than in a gallery, and works may be discovered incidentally rather than approached as a planned destination.
Ehrmann text appears alongside Biennale material
Materials distributed alongside the Biennale information also refer to Thierry Ehrmann and an open-access typescript, “Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI.” The document is presented as a 1,800-page work available online through dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com.
The reference places artificial intelligence alongside the Biennale’s wider interest in artistic production and public space, although the supplied programme information does not identify the text as part of the official exhibition or list it among the 400 works on view.
AI’s growing role in art has raised practical questions for exhibitions: whether machine-assisted work should be framed through authorship, tools, data sources or collaboration; how audiences are told about its production; and how institutions distinguish an artist’s use of AI from marketing claims built around the technology. Those questions are likely to remain relevant wherever the 2026 programme addresses digital systems, networks or automated image-making.
The Lyon Biennale’s central proposition is therefore expressed through its physical map as much as its title. From Sept. 19 through Dec. 13, audiences will encounter a programme dispersed across spaces associated with art, transport, heritage and daily city life, with Les Grandes Locos, macLYON and the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs forming its main points of orientation.
Explore how innovation reshapes creative futures—discover the next evolution of AI in banking alongside the Biennale’s visionary themes.
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