ART FAIRS:Paris Internationale 2026

Founded in Paris in 2015 by a group of gallerists, Paris Internationale is an independent, non-profit platform and a vibrant marketplace where galleries from around the world come together within a rich cultural program. Its alternative, gallery-led model — intentionally focused, multigenerational, and attentive to the needs of artists and galleries — places discovery, exchange, and ambitious artistic presentations at its core. It is this model that Paris Internationale reasserts with its 12th edition.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Paris Internationale Archive

From 19 to 24 October 2026, Paris Internationale returns for its 12th edition with a new venue and a renewed international line-up. At 187–189 Quai de Valmy, in the heart of Canal Saint-Martin, 54 galleries and 6 non-profit spaces from 19 countries will come together, including 16 galleries joining the fair for the first time.

Bringing together new participants and returning galleries across generations and geographies, the 2026 edition continues Paris Internationale’s commitment to discovery, exchange, and ambitious artistic presentations. For its 12th edition, Paris Internationale has chosen a deliberately more focused scale — not to do less, but to make room for more: more ambitious presentations, more meaningful encounters, and more time with the projects on view. Emerging and established galleries remain intentionally intermingled, creating unexpected dialogues across generations and geographies. Rather than the sector-based layout of traditional fairs, Paris Internationale unfolds as a collection of distinct, carefully considered presentations, inviting visitors to slow down, look closely, and discover.

Beyond the gallery presentations, Paris Internationale once again expands into unexpected spaces throughout the venue. A series of site-specific and immersive Special Projects punctuates the fair, opening up new dialogue between the artworks and the building.

The 2026 edition also opens new conversations with cultural institutions and organisations that share Paris Internationale’s commitment to contemporary artistic creation and its circulation. A first collaboration with Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) brings seven emerging Korean galleries to Paris through NEXT KOREA: GALLERIES. The AlUla Contemporary Art Museum and AFALULA present an ambitious solo project by Ay-man Zedani, centred around a multi-channel video installation. Swiss brand On pre-launches its new collaboration with Sky High Goods to support the non-profit Sky High Farm from upstate New York, while École des Arts Décoratifs — PSL presents a selection of works by its alumni.

Next Korea: Galleries: Second Nature brings together seven emerging Korean galleries and sixteen artistic positions within a shared curatorial framework. Conceived as a space for disco-very, collaboration and experimentation, the project creates connections between distinct gallery programs and artistic practices, allowing different perspectives to coexist, resonate and enter into dialogue.

Moving between the natural and the artificial, the material and the symbolic, the rational and the mysterious, Second Nature considers how artists navigate a world that increasingly exceeds immediate understanding. Rituals, myths, vernacular objects, techniques and materials — some rooted in specific Korean histories — are recoded and brought into dialogue with speculative forms, technological systems and contemporary image culture.

AYMAN ZEDANI “IN THE BELLIES OF THE ROCKS”: As part of the AlUla Cultural Season in Paris, Arts AlUla and the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum, together with AFALULA, join Paris Internationale to present In the Bellies of the Rocks, an exhibition by artist Ayman Zedani. Set at the fair’s entrance as an immersive environment, the project reflects the Museum’s commitment to artists whose work emerges from a long-term engagement with AlUla, its land and the wider region. By supporting commissions that can unfold over time, from research through production, display and ultimately acquisition, the museum seeks to build a collection shaped not only by artworks, but also by the processes and questions from which they emerge.

At the heart of the exhibition is the video installation “In the Bellies of the Rocks” (2026), shown alongside a series of photographs, newly commissioned sculptures and spatial interventions that extend this research into physical space. Created with the Museum’s collection in mind, these works give material form to a speculative archaeology. Objects and fragments drift across systems of classification, memory and belief, blurring the line between archaeological artefact, factitious evidence and artwork.

Info: Paris Internationale, 187—189 Quai De Valmy, Paris, France, Duration: 20-24/10/2026, Days & Hours: Tue (20/10) 11:00-19:00, Wed-Fri (21-23/10) 12:00-19:00, Sat (24/10) 12:00-18:00, https://parisinternationale.com/