Four years is a short time, particularly in a historic city like Paris. In 2022, Art Basel Paris held its inaugural edition in the French capital and published an editorial that described a city animated by fresh creative energy. Now approaching its fifth edition, Art Basel Paris continues to build momentum.

‘It’s a subject that comes up often in conversation,’ says Souleymane Saïd. ‘Paris has long been a global city, but I feel that today it has become even more international and welcoming.’ Founder of the record label Latency and music programmer at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Saïd embodies a new generation whose commitment to inclusion and diversity finds expression in a transdisciplinary approach.

The artists

This way of working has also awoken a few sleeping beauties. The painter Claire Tabouret has designed six stained-glass windows for Notre-Dame, which will replace those created by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century. The project, initiated following the fire that devastated the cathedral in 2019, reflects a desire to bring contemporary art into dialogue with the tradition of art history.

‘It’s a privilege to live and work in an open-air museum,’ says Dhewadi Hadjab. ‘It can sometimes be difficult for a young artist to find his footing here, but the proximity to the current art scene and the opportunities for encounters are hard to find elsewhere.’ A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, the Algerian artist has made his name by exploring the body under tension. He is currently translating his work from canvas to stage, and will present the results from October in PROJET 12 at the Palais Garnier.

The international success of the young painter and sculptor Pol Taburet shows that Paris has become a centre for the art of tomorrow. The artist takes a hybrid approach to forms, genres, and mythologies. His mutant creatures, born of a dark romance between Guadeloupean voodoo and Greco-Roman mythology, won the Reiffers Art Initiatives Prize in 2022 and were exhibited at Lafayette Anticipations in 2023.

The gallerists

The arrival of Art Basel Paris gave new impetus to the city’s gallery landscape. Some galleries opened a second Paris space, as the Franco-Istanbul-based gallery The Pill did in 2024. Others entered the field for the first time, among them Petrine in 2022. A year later came Lo Brutto Stahl whose founders, Vincent Lo Brutto and Pablo Stahl, met while studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Mulhouse in the late 2010s. The idea for their gallery grew out of a desire to present exhibitions in a physical space – an essential consideration for a generation raised on social media. ‘There’s still a lot of room in Paris,’ the pair say. ‘We immediately felt supported by our elders, including Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Galerie Allen, and Galerie Chantal Crousel.’

The younger generation knows how to walk and chew gum, pairing emerging practices with a reappraisal of inherited legacies. Founded in 2018, Pavec is distinguished by its intergenerational, female-led focus. Paris’s avant-garde spirit also persuaded Raphaël Durazzo to take the plunge. In 2022, the self-taught gallerist – a self-described ‘dealer above all’ – opened his space in the Matignon/Saint-Honoré district. ‘I learn a great deal from modern-art galleries such as Le Minotaure and 1900-2000, and I’m constantly talking with other young gallerists.’ He says, ‘We speak to one another frankly. We’re probably a more straight-shooting generation.”

The fashion world

Fashion, too, is taking inspiration from the best of previous eras. In 2023, the arrival of the American artist Pharrell Williams at the helm of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection made an immediate impact. In his typical iconoclastic style, for his first show he took over the Pont-Neuf, transforming the heart of Paris into an open-air runway. In 2024, the French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy became the fourth artistic director of Chanel. A year later, he presented his first collection beneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais, turning the building into a celestial setting – an ode to imagined escapes and vernacular elegance. In 2025, the Dutch designer Duran Lantink, another millennial figure, became Jean Paul Gaultier’s first creative director. In his work, corsets, cylindrical volumes, and 3D scans shape a post-gender, armor-like body. Since 2025, these grand displays have found a popular expression in Lyas’s Watch Parties: free, festive events held in bars and outdoor spaces, where runway shows are viewed collectively on a giant screen.

The performing arts

To create today is to refuse to be confined to an ivory tower. For (LA)HORDE, the transdisciplinary group founded in Paris by Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer, and Arthur Harel in 2013, the future lies in the strength of the collective. Working between dance, video, and installation, the French choreographers have directed the Ballet national de Marseille since 2019. Their latest work, Après moi, le déluge, which will tour France this autumn,is a raw depiction of a Dantean age.

When the 55th edition of the Festival d’Automne à Paris decided to devote a portrait to Bouchra Ouizguen, the Moroccan choreographer invited a group of other artists, from different generations, regions of the world, and disciplines, to create a series of works. ‘I asked myself how to think about the present without becoming nostalgic for past works,’ she explains. ‘I’m currently leading workshops with children aged nine to eleven, beginning the process of transmission through play and group work.’ She was speaking of her creation Nahl, Arabic for “bee,” which was performed in September at the Centre des monuments nationaux.

The music scene

The soundtrack to this new era may well be provided by the ‘boss lady’ Théodora. Born at the turn of the millennium, the young artist of African descent dispenses unfiltered hedonism through a combination of trap, French pop, and bouyon. From Saint-Denis to Paris’s stages, this generation is creating an expanded potential in music, which is diasporic, hybrid, and free.

Oklou, whose introspective, synthetic universe first took shape through hyperpop mixtapes released on SoundCloud, now performs on the stages of mega-festivals like Coachella and composes video-game soundtracks. Meanwhile, the current rock revival is represented by the dreamy, rebellious psychedelia of Marlon Magnée, a former co-founder of the band La Femme.

The magazines

‘Paris has always been a diverse and international cultural epicenter. Over the past decade that aspect has become much more accessible to English speakers,’ says Andrew Pasquier, who has been editor-in-chief of the iconic gay magazine BUTT since 2022. The American says he takes inspiration from the capital’s history of gay culture and political organizing, citing among his favorite places the bookshop Les Mots à la Bouche and the guinguette Rosa Bonheur.

Speaking freely and openly, Hanadi Mostefa, co-founder of the women’s media platform ANCRÉ, says, ‘In 2026, we no longer disguise ourselves as someone else.’ The newly launched ANCRÉ Club is aimed at those who have felt they never belonged anywhere, offering 'workshops that create connections through activities such as embroidery, Desi dance, and henna tutorials'.

It is through the possibility of making room for other narratives and communities that Paris’s new face is taking shape. The capital remains monumental, sometimes intimidating, but it is opening up and becoming more navigable to all. Four years after Art Basel arrived in Paris, the city is no longer concerned solely with defending its heritage. It is learning how to set it in motion.