Following a four-year renovation, the Centre culturel suisse (CCS) will reopen its building in the heart of the Marais to the public from 26 March 2026. Revamped by the Franco-Swiss architectural duo ASBR (Paris) and Truwant+Rodet+ (Basel), the new spaces invite audiences to come together and celebrate Swiss cultural life.
This reopening marks the return of the CCS after several years of the On Tour programme in France. It is accompanied by several days of multidisciplinary artistic programmes, combining exhibitions, shows, performances, concerts and meetings, before the launch of a season dedicated to contemporary Swiss creation until summer 2026.
A historic building reimagined
Located in the former Poussepin mansion, whose architectural layers date from the 17th to the 19th centuries, the CCS is part of a heritage estate shaped by the evolution of the Marais and the overlapping uses of the site, which has accommodated artisan premises, a pharmacy and middle-class housing.
In 1982, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia acquired the ground floor of the building and the adjacent warehouse. The buildings were renovated and converted without altering their historical features to accommodate the CCS, which has been developing its artistic activities there since 1985.
To upgrade production and exhibition facilities for artists and improve the visitor experience, a renovation project started in 2022. The winner of an architectural competition organised by the Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics (FOBL) in collaboration with Pro Helvetia, the design is the product of a Franco-Swiss collaboration between the offices of ASBR in Paris and Truwant+Rodet+ in Basel. Their approach is based on a principle of controlled transformation, which improves usage, flow and visitor facilities while respecting the site’s heritage identity. The CCS is reconfigured as a flexible hub, fostering continuity and porosity between spaces and hosting a wide variety of artistic scenarios. With the return of its bookstore, the launch of its snack bar and three large modular spaces dedicated to exhibitions, shows, concerts and meetings, the Centre reaffirms its role as a hub for living and disseminating contemporary Swiss creation.
The renovation work was the subject of a publication, En travaux !, edited by CCS and Pro Helvetia, designed by Adeline Mollard, and featuring shots of the construction site taken by photographers Florine Leoni and Nicolas Delaroche.
Reopening season
After several years of the On Tour programme throughout France, the CCS returns to its historic building. The reopening season draws on the CCS’s multidisciplinary DNA to celebrate the diversity of the contemporary Swiss scene from March to July: three exhibitions, six series of performances, two music festivals and several impromptu artistic events.
Building on the success of On Tour and the links forged with multiple partners, the programme will feature several off-site events to prolong this momentum.
Programme details
Reopening party from Thursday, 26 March to Saturday, 28 March 2026
Curtains up and doors open to celebrate the return to Paris. There will be tours of the spaces with the architects, visits to the three exhibitions with the curatorial team, impromptu dance performances by Édouard Hue’s troupe and a musical carte blanche for the Geneva-based label Bongo Joe Records, who will be staging a festival featuring concerts, talks, installations, publications, and records.
Exhibitions from Thursday, 26 March to Sunday, 26 July 2026
Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah – no flowers
Exploring the relationship between photographic materialities, AI and visual distortions, no flowers investigates mourning and the absence and violence of medical institutions.
Mai-Thu Perret – Othermothers
A cosmic space populated by powerful and luminous goddesses, the exhibition imagines new collective and emancipatory mythologies.
Ingeborg Lüscher – Flammes
Tracing the artist’s pioneering work from the late 1960s onwards, the exhibition evokes the creative and unruly power of fire, from flames to ashes.
Show programme at the CCS
Theatre
Anna Lemonaki – G.O.L.D. Glory of Little Dreams
Wednesday, 1 April to Saturday, 4 April
Joyful celebration of failure, which overturns the codes of success, replaces glory with vulnerability, and overthrows the tyranny of achievement.
Dance
Philippe Saire – Smoke
Tuesday, 14 April to Saturday, 18 April
Caught between two walls and enveloped in smoke, a dancer struggles with elusive forms. In a disturbing interplay between presence and disappearance, seeking a way out of this confrontation.
Theatre
Cédric Djedje – Vielleicht
Monday, 4 May to Thursday, 7 May
In search of memory and reparation, the show traces the African and Afro-descendant struggles to change the colonial street names in Berlin.
Theatre
Fabrice Gorgerat – Chienne
Wednesday, 20 May to Friday, 29 May
In a self-fictive text, Marie-Pier Lafontaine reclaims her rights from a traumatic childhood, shattered by an unspeakable incestuous father.
Theatre
Elina Kulikova – Un champ brûlé
Wednesday, 3 June to Friday, 5 June
A duo of exiled Russian artists revisit classic romances to reveal the historical and political violence that permeates their culture.
Theatre
Louis Bonard – L’Apocalypse
From Wednesday, 17 June to Sunday, 21 June
Inspired by the Apocalypse of Saint John, this theatrical series probes the collapse of the world and invites people to flee from fatalism with humour.
Concert programme at the CCS
Festival
Purple Music 2026 with Manon Mullener quintet, Ena Vera sextet, Nola Kin quartet, Billie Bird & Odd Beholder
Thursday, 9 April and Friday, 10 April
The fourth edition of the festival presents the soundscapes of musicians from the emerging Swiss music scene. In collaboration with the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation.
Festival
Allover Festival
Thursday, 11 June to Saturday, 13 June
First edition of a festival dedicated to contemporary music, combining sound experiments, hybridisation and a desire to celebrate.
Sound installation
Dimitri de Perrot – Unter uns, museum version
Tuesday, 7 July to Sunday, 26 July
Immersive creation that draws the audience in and plunges them into the heart of the earth, into an intimate world filled with rustling, sounds and echoes.
Performance and talk
Monte Verità: a day dedicated to the mystical Monte Verità hill, where artists and free spirits invented an alternative way of life in the 20th century.
Talk
Histoire et futur du mont magnétique with Nicoletta Mongini and Federica Chiocchetti
Performance
Anna Chirescu – Monte verdura
Saturday, 25 April 2026
Off-site programme in Paris
Theatre
Old Masters – Le Cheval qui peint
From Wednesday, 25 March to Saturday, 28 March at T2G Gennevilliers
Tired of his human existence, Old Masters decided to become a horse, a horse passionate about painting.
Theatre
Ntando Cele – Wasted land
Thursday, 16 April and Friday, 17 April at MC93 — Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis in Bobigny
A musical performance sung against a backdrop of the end of the world, which brilliantly confronts the disasters of fast fashion.
Music
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp
Saturday, 6 June at Théâtre Silvia Monfort
The multicultural symphonic ascents of the Geneva-based collective are accompanied by powerful and engaging lyrics.
About the Centre culturel suisse
With a strong focus on contemporary creation, the CCS reflects the diversity and vitality of the Swiss arts scene. It aims to promote a cosmopolitan Swiss cultural scene in France, to enhance the visibility of Swiss artists, and to strengthen exchange between the Swiss and French cultural scenes. The artistic project is led by Jean-Marc Diébold for performing arts and music, and Claire Hoffmann for visual arts. The Centre culturel suisse is an office abroad of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
Information about the opening days
Tuesday, 24 March:
Inauguration in the presence of Federal Councillor Élisabeth Baume-Schneider, by invitation only
Wednesday, 25 March and Thursday, 26 March (daytime):
days for professionals, by invitation
Thursday, 26 March (evening), Friday, 27 March and Saturday, 28 March:
public opening
Full programme
Enquiries
Pro Helvetia:
media@prohelvetia.ch
+41 44 267 71 71
CCS:
Lola Besrest
lbesrest@ccsparis.com
+33 1 88 21 04 10
