PARIS.- For six days in September, the narrow streets of Saint-Germain-des-Pr閟 will once again become something between an art fair, an open-air museum and a meeting place for collectors, scholars, dealers and the simply curious. Parcours des Mondes, the international gathering devoted to the arts of Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas, as well as archaeology, returns to Paris from September 8 to 13, 2026, this year marking its 25th anniversary.
What began 25 years ago as an unusual proposition — bringing these fields together in the galleries of one Paris neighborhood rather than inside a conventional fair hall — has grown into a major annual rendezvous. For the anniversary edition, around fifty resident and international galleries will turn Saint-Germain-des-Pr閟 into a walkable exhibition circuit, with visitors moving from one culture and period to another simply by crossing a street.
That sense of discovery remains central to the event. The galleries do not occupy temporary booths but work from established gallery spaces or premises transformed for the week, allowing exhibitors to build exhibitions around individual collections, artists, cultures and ideas. The result is less a single fair than a constellation of small exhibitions spread through the neighborhood.
The anniversary is also a moment to remember Pierre Moos, the founder of Parcours des Mondes, to whom the 2026 edition is dedicated. In his introduction to the press dossier, director general Yves-Bernard Debie recalls Moos's belief in maintaining a close relationship between the art market, collectors and museums — a philosophy that has remained part of the event's identity.
Birds take over Saint-Germain-des-Pr閟
The celebration will spill out of the galleries and into the streets through “Les Oiseaux de Parade,” a project by contemporary artist Damien Poulain. Using the bird as a recurring, almost totemic image, Poulain draws from myths and objects stretching from the falcon of Horus in ancient Egypt to the traditions of Rapa Nui.
Colorful cotton banners will appear throughout Saint-Germain-des-Pr閟, transforming birds into messengers, guardians, ancestors and spirits. The project moves freely across geography, finding echoes in Senufo and Yoruba traditions in West Africa, Nasca and Moche cultures in ancient Peru, the quetzal in Mexico, frigate birds in the Solomon Islands and the bird-man traditions of Rapa Nui.
The idea is fitting for an event built around movement. Poulain's birds become symbols of forms and stories migrating across time and place while retaining the specificity of the cultures from which they emerge.
From Senegalese modernism to ancient African sculpture
Inside the galleries, the anniversary program moves just as widely.
At Charles-Wesley Hourd, Modernit閟 S閚間alaises turns to the 蒫ole de Dakar, the movement that helped shape modern Senegalese art in the years surrounding independence. The exhibition brings together more than 15 artists, including Souleymane Keita, Bocar Path Diong, Amadou Seck and Amadou Sow, examining a generation influenced by the cultural vision of L閛pold S閐ar Senghor and the aesthetics and intellectual ambitions of N間ritude.
At Galerie David Serra, Les Secrets du Sable proposes a visual journey from Mediterranean Africa to the Gulf of Guinea. Moving from prehistory to the present, the exhibition pays particular attention to the Sahara and Sahel and to Dogon, Bamana and Senufo cultures, while also bringing historical objects into conversation with contemporary African art.
Galerie Bernard Dulon takes a more personal approach with an exhibition devoted to the collection of Max Itzikovitz. His relationship with Africa began in the 1960s, when he arrived in Abidjan to work as a dentist. The exhibition follows the gradual formation of a collector's eye through encounters with C魌e d'Ivoire, its markets, galleries, objects and people.
Meanwhile, Galerie Flak renews its collaboration with Crosby Studios and Harry Nuriev, placing historical works from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in a contemporary scenographic environment. The project deliberately plays with the gap — and the possible conversation — between ancient objects and contemporary design.
Looking at people, not phenomena
One of the more human-centered presentations comes from Galerie Monbrison, whose exhibition turns to Igboora, a town in southwestern Nigeria known for its unusually high incidence of twin births.
In Yoruba culture, twins, or Ibeji, hold a sacred place. Historically, when one twin died young, families could commission a carved figure representing the child and continue to care for it as a living presence.
Alongside this tradition, the gallery presents photographs by Olympia de Maismont, who has documented twins in Igboora. Rather than treating them as a curiosity, her photographs focus on individual people and the intimacy of relationships between siblings — two people who mirror one another without becoming interchangeable.
Collecting as another form of creation
The anniversary also extends beyond the participating galleries.
La Part de la Main presents around 60 works from the collection of sculptor and collector Jan Calmeyn, principally from Central Africa. Curated by Marguerite de Sabran and Bernard Dulon, the exhibition considers Calmeyn's collection as a creative achievement in itself — one formed through decades of looking, choosing and responding to the work of other makers.
Across the Seine at Galerie Gradiva, Bernard de Grunne curates Mains de Ma顃res, an exhibition that asks viewers to look at classical African sculpture not simply by culture or geography, but through the individuality of its makers. The exhibition examines how distinctive hands, workshops and sculptural styles can sometimes be identified within traditions that were historically discussed collectively.
That exhibition is joined by Barbara De Pauw's Continuum, in which photography, sculpture and installation explore eclipses, celestial phenomena, light and the relationship between the visible and invisible. Her contemporary work is placed in dialogue with classical African sculpture, creating an encounter between objects separated by time but connected through ideas of presence, energy and the sacred.
The Parcours also reaches beyond Paris through its association with Africa Legacy – Berceau de l'Art in Brussels, curated by Didier Claes. The exhibition brings classical African material into conversation with modern and contemporary artists including Malik Sidib, Ch閞i Samba, Aboudia, Joana Choumali, Romuald Hazoum and Omar Victor Diop, emphasizing continuity rather than a rigid division between historical and contemporary African art.
Other anniversary initiatives include the Mingei Bamboo Prize, whose finalists will be presented at the mus閑 du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, and the Pierre Moos Prize, organized with Christie's to recognize outstanding publications devoted to the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
And, in a decidedly different kind of journey across cultures, chocolatier Pierre Marcolini will serve as guest of honor. His contribution takes visitors through the geography of cacao, with grand cru ganaches reflecting regions from Africa to South America — a sensory counterpart to an event that has always been built around the pleasure of moving from one world to another.
Parcours des Mondes takes place September 8–13, 2026, in the Quartier des Beaux-Arts, Saint-Germain-des-Pr閟, Paris.
