On Renault’s former island, cars have become art - Ouest-France
Large, the new art centre on Île Seguin near Paris, puts Renault’s collection beside new works about factories, workers and machines.
Renault once made cars on Île Seguin. Now its collection helps explain why you might cross the Seine to visit the island. Large, the contemporary art centre that opened here in October, has built its first exhibition around the relationship between people, factories and machines.
The island lies at Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris. Its new venue is on the Pointe des Arts, at the opposite end from La Seine Musicale concert hall. For an art-minded visitor, the attraction is an exhibition connected to the place beneath it, rather than another stop on the central Paris museum circuit.
Moteur Imaginaire, or “Imaginary Engine”, runs until 7 March 2027. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, it brings historical works from the Renault collection together with new commissions. The company’s involvement with artists began well before this building: its late-1960s Research, Art and Industry programme gave them access to the factory’s materials, equipment and people.
That history gives the first section its substance. Names include Jean Dubuffet, Victor Vasarely, Jean Tinguely and Robert Doisneau. The rest of the exhibition widens the view from making objects to the people who made them, and to the desires attached to cars.
One chapter considers workers’ lives, including those of immigrants, through artists such as Leila Alaoui and Mohamed El Khatib. Another treats the car as an object of desire and identity. Seventeen artists were invited to produce new works for the show, among them Bertrand Lavier and Sara Sadik. It is a contemporary art exhibition about industrial life, rather than a collection of vehicles arranged by model year.
The setting offers a second reason to come. The island’s public spaces include gardens and a sculpture route. La Seine Musicale, opened in 2017, occupies the downstream tip; Large adds an exhibition destination at the upstream end. Concert admission follows the separate programme of the music venue.
Inside Large, the ground-floor bookshop and the fourth-floor coffee shop give the visit places to pause. The latter has a terrace overlooking the Seine and the slopes of Meudon. Neither a concert nor a meal is needed to understand the exhibition’s central link between this island and Renault.
Large opens Wednesday to Sunday, 11am–7pm, with Friday opening extended to 9pm. Galleries are cleared half an hour before those closing times. Monday and Tuesday are closed. A Friday evening can therefore work differently from a daytime museum visit, while arriving just before 7pm on another day leaves no gallery time.
Full admission is €15 and the reduced rate €10. The venue’s visitor information lists the concessions and documents needed. The address is 3 parvis Amont, on Île Seguin. For public transport, the venue recommends Billancourt on metro line 9, followed by a 12-minute walk, or Brimborion on tram T2, five minutes away on foot.
Suitcases are not accepted, so this is easier to place between sightseeing days than between a hotel checkout and an onward train with all your luggage. The map locates the island; use the art centre’s street address for its entrance.
Sébastien founded QuandPartir in 2004 and has been its publishing director ever since. His love of travel led him to build a personal database of destinations, which later became the website.
