Hors les Murs

Lille Grand Palais naturally fulfills the mission it has set for itself: to be the flag bearer of the Lille destination.

Eighteen years after its creation, the fair has become a highly anticipated event. It now brings together a growing community of collectors and contemporary art enthusiasts each year. By orchestrating an Beyond the Wall programme, Lille Art Up! enhances the experience it offers its visitors. It also shines a spotlight on the rich range of offerings provided by the region’s museum institutions.

In 2026, three museums from the Lille metropolitan area and the Hauts-de-France region took part in the programme. This year, the off-site programme goes beyond national borders by also including Le Grand Hornu (Boussu, Belgium).

Discover our partners programme:

Objet textile From 14 February to 26 April 2026

For this 5th edition of the Objet Textile Biennial, 20 designers transform the uses of materials.

At the crossroads of art and science, between artisanal experimentation and environmental commitment, between traditional craftsmanship and digital technology, each of them innovates in their own way in the field of textile objects.

Visionary, committed, and playful, they explore materials—familiar or unconventional—to reveal their aesthetic qualities or even their poetry, to assert an eco-artistic approach, or to offer a critical perspective on contemporary society.

Follow them as they slip into the interstices and blur the boundaries between art, design, and research. You can only be surprised by everything that textiles can become—or make possible!

Guided tour of the Objet Textile 5 Biennial exhibition, under the theme Materials Matter, on Saturday 14 March at 3:00 pm. Free booking via the Lille Art Up! ticketing service, subject to the purchase and presentation of a valid ticket.

Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts is:

› A unique art school attracting students from all over the world,
› An institution open to everyone (exhibitions, cinema, events),
› A center dedicated to creation and innovation,
› A place of exchange with leading regional, national, and international institutions.

Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts is an institution for artistic, audiovisual, and digital training, production, and dissemination. Its aim is to enable young creators from around the world to produce works using professional technical resources, within a broad cross-disciplinary approach that breaks down boundaries between different forms of expression.

Guided tour on Saturday 14 March at 3:30 pm, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the film production process. Free booking via the Lille Art Up! ticketing service, subject to the purchase and presentation of a valid ticket.

Kandinsky face aux images, 20 February – 14 June 2026

Housed in newly renovated buildings, the LaM will reopen on 20 February 2026 with a major retrospective devoted to Vassily Kandinsky, a leading figure of 20th-century art.

Co-organised with the Centre Pompidou – Paris, the exhibition explores a lesser-known aspect of the artist’s work: the role of images.

Photographs, scientific illustrations, and press images—far from being mere sources of inspiration—nourished Kandinsky’s visual thinking and accompanied his quest toward abstraction.

Through a unique selection of artworks and archival materials from the Nina Kandinsky bequest to the Centre Pompidou, along with exceptional loans from European public and private institutions, the exhibition invites visitors to rediscover the importance of images in the work of one of the founders of abstraction.

Reduced admission to the Kandinsky exhibition is available upon presentation of a Lille Art Up! ticket from 12 to 15 March 2026.

MACS | Grand-Hornu
Cristina Garrido & Honoré δ’O — Until 10 May 2026

Located on the former Grand-Hornu coal mining site (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the MACS – Museum of Contemporary Arts of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation – is recognised as one of the most successful examples in Northern Europe of the transformation of an industrial wasteland into a cultural venue.

The MACS is currently presenting a monographic exhibition devoted to Spanish artist Cristina Garrido. Titled The White Cube Is Never Empty, the exhibition examines the ways in which contemporary art is defined, contextualised, and perceived in an age of globalised culture. A second exhibition is dedicated to Belgian artist Honoré δ’O, who occupies the museum’s large square gallery. His installation Quarantaine–Quarantine reflects on his stay in the Texan desert, offering visitors an immersive experience.

Reduced admission of €6 instead of €10 is available for the Cristina Garrido & Honoré δ’O exhibitions, and free guided tours are organised from Tuesday to Friday at 2 pm and on Sundays at 11 am and 2 pm, upon presentation of a Lille Art Up! ticket.