The France Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai is delighted to announce its new temporary exhibition ‘Grand Paris Express’, an immersive exhibition that focuses on the largest urban project in Europe.

The exhibition was inaugurated on January 19^th, 2022, by Emmanuelle Wargon, French Minister Delegate for Housing, attached to the Minister for the Ecological Transition,in presence of Erik Linquier, Commissioner General for France at Expo 2020 Dubai, Rémi Babinet, Chairman of the Grand Paris Express Fund and Pierre-Emmanuel Becherand, Head of Architecture, Culture, Design and Creation at Société du Grand Paris. In addition, the exhibition is supported by two companies, Egis and Systra.

Designed by the architect Dominique Perrault, appointed General Commissioner at Société du Grand Paris, this exhibition is an immersive experience inside which a 360° movie retraces the story of this project of the century. All around the experience, Dominique Perrault has invited French artist, JR, to create an artwork that embodies and places inhabitants and future users at the heart of this project to transform the city.

‘Grand Paris Express’ exhibitionis designed to take visitors on a journey to the world’s major capitals for national and international events and is also intended to be a place for debate on large-scale urban transformations in the world’s metropolises.

Grand Paris Express: a project of urban transformation and artistic creation

The Grand Paris Express, the future metro of Greater Paris, is the largest infrastructure and development project in Europe with 200 kilometers of network. This temporary exhibition introduces also how this major project also is a showcase of French savoir-faire in architecture, mobility, urban planning, engineering, and culture.

Dominique Perrault: an innovative approach of the city of tomorrow

For thirty years and through major achievements such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) in Paris or the EWHA underground university in Seoul, Korea, architect Dominique Perrault has shown his interest in underground architecture, which he calls the “Groundscape”.

JR, an artistic look at the people of Greater Paris

Dominique Perrault invited French artist JRto intervene around the exhibition to embody the place of inhabitants and future users. This artistic intervention echoes the “Tandems” approach, that aims to associate an artist with an architect where the design becomes a permanent work of art in each of the future stations of the Grand Paris Express.