Les Extatiques: contemporary art in the open air

Les Extatiques: contemporary art in the open air (c) Martin Argyroglo

Les Extatiques at Paris La Défense

The open-air contemporary art exhibition was imagined in 2018 by Fabrice Bousteau for Paris La Défense to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the La Défense district and to integrate art as a way to create connection, pleasure and seduction. Since then, thanks to its success, Les Extatiques has become a must-see event for art lovers and the curious.

An artistic journey out of the ordinary, born of the meeting and exchange between the territory and the artists. A poetic, atypical journey, designed since its 3rd edition to be lived from the gardens of La Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt to the esplanade of La Défense, where the experience of the ultra-urbanism of the high towers leaves room for creation, for the discovery of certain places, to feel the little-known beauty of the La Défense district.

Les Extatiques, to venture, step by step, to the discovery of works of art that challenge our senses, transform our vision of reality, of daily life, change perspectives and lead us to look at places differently.

Improbable works of art that "break the codes", that play with time and scale, and transform the mineral landscape of La Défense for a confusing walk where the freedom to look, to be enthusiastic or to criticize is required.

The works, located outdoors, are accessible to all. So don't hesitate and be ecstatic!

Les Extatiques 2023, from June 22 to October 1, 2023!

For its 6th edition, the exhibition returns with a selection of artworks, some created especially for the event, celebrating the 4 elements: water, fire, earth and air. The artistic approach thus focuses on the natural elements that make up the two exhibition sites: concrete, metal or glass; minerality or vegetation; water or wind; music; verticality; insularity...

Find out more about the 2023 program

Back to the Extatiques 2022

In 2022, the contemporary art exhibition Les Extatiques took place from June 22 to October 2 for a fifth edition placed under the theme of the living. A new contemplative journey that invited us to discover works, some of them never seen before, from the esplanade of La Défense to the gardens of La Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt. David Moinard, curator and artistic director of this edition, took us on a brand new journey through lively and generous works, joyfully celebrating life and leading us to marvel at it by soliciting our imagination. An invitation to contemplation that appealed to our sensibility to perceive the living in what surrounds us through the different approaches of the 12 artists who set out to write a desirable future. Sculptures of earth, air and water, paintings of the sky, contemporary ruins, animal presences, inter-species dialogues, multiple shifts, plant forms and forces...

Five works were hosted at the Seine Musicale, and nine at Paris La Défense, with, as a link between the two sites, the intervention of Elsa Tomkowiak and her work OUT/Codamela, deploying its colorful ranges in the public space, or Natural calender, the work of Marcus Coates, compiling, thanks to the collaboration of researchers, amateur naturalists and citizen projects, the news of biodiversity that occur in Paris and its surroundings.

Relive the 2022 edition of the Extatiques

Back to the Extatiques 2021

In 2021, the exhibition Les Extatiques took place from June 24 to October 3, co-created, for the second time, with Paris La Défense and the Department of Hauts-de-Seine to extend the experience of this wandering through contemporary art from the esplanade of La Défense to the gardens of La Seine Musicale. On the theme of ecstasy, the exhibition of 2021 proposed for 3 months, until the Nuit Blanche, 15 outdoor works, some of which were designed exclusively for the exhibition. As for the 3 previous editions, Fabrice Bousteau, curator and artistic director of the exhibition, has thought of the itinerary to bring visitors to take time to be ecstatic in a context where global problems force to act in the emergency.

Six works were displayed in the Bellini Garden and on the forecourt of La Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt, with, for example, Jean-Bernard Métais's "Sensory Chambers", in which each piece acts as a filter in the landscape, sometimes dark, sometimes light, offering a new and hypnotic experience. The nine works on the esplanade of La Défense also invited to get lost in contemplation, such as "Cube Sphere Gold", by Cyril Lancelin. A kinetic experience open to the public space generated by a cube of golden and reflective spheres.

Relive the ecstasy of the Extatiques 2021

Back to the Extatiques 2020

In 2020, the open-air contemporary art exhibition "Les Extatiques" took place from June 26 to October 4, and for the first time, the Hauts-de-Seine department co-hosted the edition with Paris La Défense, increasing the artists' playground from the esplanade of La Défense to the gardens of La Seine Musicale.

Several artists have installed their works on the roof of the Jardin Bellini and on the Parvis de La Seine Musicale, downstream from the Ile Seguin in Boulogne-Billancourt in the Hauts-de-Seine.

Entitled "Rien à voir" (Nothing to see), the exhibition of 2020 proposed during 3 months about twenty works in the open air, most of them having been created especially for the occasion. Fabrice Bousteau was once again in charge of the artistic direction, composing it as an unusual journey between the territory and the artists, in the heart of Europe's leading business district.

As a common thread between the two exhibition sites, artist Fabrice Hyber has installed ManWoman at La Seine Musicale, and small green characters in Takis' Bassin, whose body orifices pour out streams of water. As a way of telling us that nature always takes back its rights.

This edition has managed to deal with sanitary restrictions and social distancing.

Back to the Extatiques 2019

In 2019, for the second edition, the contemporary art exhibition, Les Extatiques de Paris La Défense had for themes the air and the wind.

Nine artists, still under the artistic direction of Fabrice Bousteau, had taken possession of the Esplanade de La Défense to, once again, consecrate the La Défense district in Paris as a district of art and life.

You loved this stroll through 9 stunning works of art made of air, water, sculptures, photographs and prints. An invitation to breathe serenely, to change air.

An inflated exhibition whose closing has been integrated into the Nuit Blanche program.

Back to the Extatiques 2018

Created by Paris La Défense in 2018 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the business district, the contemporary art exhibition Les Extatiques aims to bring poetry to this unique cultural territory in the world.

For this first edition, no theme is proposed, just 108 days of artistic journey accessible to all, proposed on the public space, to enrich our perception of the places.

A surprising multi-sensory experience where music, cinema and contemporary art meet and which continues today thanks to the Public Bench, a work of Lilian Bourgeat on which one rediscovers one's childlike soul, or thanks to the original sound route proposed by the artistic collective Soundwalk Collective.