4 exciting exhibitions to discover in August 2025

Looking for artistic refreshment on a hot August day? Paris delights you with strong, sensitive and committed exhibitions.
Between ancient history, radical fashion, contemporary art and cultural memory, these four exhibitions will take you on a different journey. From emblematic museums to more confidential venues, here are our must-see cultural highlights for the summer of 2025 in the capital.

The Cleopatra Mystery – Institut du Monde Arabe

With over 300 works, the Institut du Monde Arabe offers a fascinating reinterpretation of Cleopatra, both a complex historical figure and a creature of Hollywood legend. The exhibition moves between antique pieces, archives, film extracts and contemporary installations. It questions the ways in which the West has fantasized about Egypt’s last queen, and pays tribute to her political strategy and real-life charisma, all too often overshadowed by clichés.
An immersive, visually rich journey that revives the figure of Cleopatra with intelligence and modernity.

📍Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 Rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard, 75005 Paris

Anna Maria Maiolino – I’m here. Estou aqui. – Picasso Museum Paris

The first major French exhibition devoted to Anna Maria Maiolino, a major figure in Brazilian contemporary art. Born in Calabria and living in Brazil since the 60s, the artist explores themes of the body, memory, migration and resistance, through sculpture, photography, video and drawing.
Her works in raw clay, her minimal installations and her repetitive gestures testify to a rare intimate and political power. A strong, sober exhibition that invites us to slow down and feel.

📍Musée National Picasso-Paris, 5 Rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris

Rick Owens – Temple of Love – Palais Galliera

A radical icon of international fashion, Rick Owens is the subject of a powerful, unfiltered retrospective. The Palais Galliera presents over 100 silhouettes, documents, videos and never-before-seen works, tracing the singular universe of the American designer: dark, sculptural, committed, between gothic, futurism and raw poetry.
Conceived as a “temple of love”, the exhibition unfolds his unusual aesthetic and shows how Owens imposed an alternative vision of the body, gender and clothing, in the highly coded world of fashion.

📍 Palais Galliera, 10 Av. Pierre 1er de Serbie, 75116 Paris

Masters of Fire – Musée d’Archéologie Nationale

Head to the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye for a journey back to the European Bronze Age. The “Masters of Fire” exhibition offers an educational and visual immersion into the world of those who knew how to tame fire: blacksmiths, ceramists, builders.
Archaeological objects, reconstructions, models and interactive videos give substance to this major technical revolution, as yet little explored. An excellent idea for a cultural getaway at the gateway to Paris, to be combined with a stroll in the château gardens.

📍 Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, 1 Pl. Charles de Gaulle, 78100 Saint-Germain-en-Laye

And to extend your cultural summer in Paris, discover our selection of walks, confidential exhibitions and art addresses on parisselectbook.com