August 2025 in Paris: exhibitions worth visiting
In August, Paris changes its rhythm but not its cultural richness. Museums and art venues bring out their most surprising proposals. Some exhibitions make the headlines, others go almost unnoticed. Here are the ones we’d be remiss to miss.
Visual immersions and unusual installations
Euphoria, Art Is in the Air at the Grand Palais Éphémère
Monumental inflatable works invade the space. We walk through sculptures of air, fabric and light, as if in a waking dream.
Children laugh, adults photograph, everyone emerges transformed.
The exhibition, open until September 7, is already attracting crowds.
📍Grand Palais, 75008 Paris
Into the Light at La Grande Halle de La Villette
Shifting lights, hypnotic halos and dancing reflections.
This sensory exhibition plunges you into a spectacular ballet of light, created by international digital artists.
The vast, dark setting amplifies the sensation of unreality.
A unique experience to be enjoyed before August 31, 2025.
La Villette, 211 Av. Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris
When history resurfaces
The Berlin Wall: A World Divided at the Cité de l’Architecture
This exhibition goes back to the roots of the most symbolic wall of the 20th century.
Models, videos and eyewitness accounts show the brutal separation between East and West.
The clear, poignant tour will appeal to history buffs and curious high school students alike.
Visible until September 28, 2025.
📍Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, 1 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, 75116 Paris
100 years of medals at the Legion of Honor Museum
Unknown but fascinating, this exhibition looks back over a century of French honors.
Portraits of honorees, military stories and personal objects bring forgotten heroes back to life.
All in an elegant, sober setting.
Free, open until November 23.
📍Musée national de la Légion d’honneur et des ordres de chevalerie, 2 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75007 Paris
Cultural treasures from elsewhere
Angkor bronzes at the Musée Guimet
This exhibition unveils bronze masterpieces from ancient royal Cambodia.
Statues of divinities, ritual objects and restored artifacts are presented in a sober setting.
We discover a refined, age-old spirituality, often unknown to the general public.
To be seen before September 8.
📍Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, 6 Pl. d’Iéna, 75116 Paris
Mission Dakar-Djibouti at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
More than 3,000 objects collected during a controversial ethnographic mission in the 1930s.
The exhibition questions colonial history, but also gives a voice to the countries involved.
Between fascination and unease, it invites a critical look at our museums.
It closes on September 14, 2025.
📍Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 37 Quai Jacques Chirac, 75007 Paris
Summer is short, but so are masterpieces
Some of these exhibitions will never return. Others will change the way you look at the world.
Take half a day, push open a door, let yourself be surprised.
Paris never really sleeps… especially not in August.
Discover other cultural offers on parisselectbook.com
