Embark on an exploration of the underwater worlds of the ocean, with an audio headset and a flashlight in hand… All in La Défense? That’s what the contemporary art festival Les Extatiques offers, back for a new edition in the form of an artistic season. From April 3 to June 12, the event accompanies spring and invites art into the midst of the buildings and the fast pace of La Défense.
Les Extatiques, which aims to create connections through contemporary art, unveils this year a program that mixes contemporary art and performing arts. It starts with the exhibition “D’autres mondes” to be discovered from April 3 to 26, 2026 in the Salle des Colonnes, located under the grand arch. At the intersection of science and fiction, the immersive exhibition invites the public to delve into the depths of the ocean to explore the largest part of the world, which remains invisible to our eyes. The festival details: “The ocean, which covers 70% of the Earth’s surface and regulates the climate, absorbs 90% of the excess heat due to climate change every day. It produces more than half of the oxygen we breathe. It is the Earth’s primary lung, the beating heart of life. And yet, over 80% of its depths remain unexplored.”
Dark Worlds
Poetic and sensory underwater exploration, “D’autres mondes” invites you into a dark world to discover the worlds of four artists, guided by a story from Mariette Navarro and embodied by Emily Loizeau. You will discover essential microorganisms for the balance of the planet in an installation orchestrated by Antoine Bertin, before entering the “Zone de minuit” by sculptor Ugo Schiavi. Like immersed at a depth of 1,000 meters, you will encounter ghostly jellyfish, creatures with translucent teeth, and many unknown organisms.
Jérémie Brugidou, on the other hand, proposes an installation related to bioluminescence, where light does not come from the sun but from the organisms that inhabit the oceans. “In the depths, this light is a language – to attract, repel, seduce, deceive, survive. More than 75% of abyssal species use it. Brugidou initiates us into this secret grammar, like chapters of a world history written in the dark,” continues the organization.
This exploration of the depths culminates in a cave dedicated to the mother goddess of the oceans, Yemayá. Designed by Shivay La Multiple, a multidisciplinary artist from New Caledonia / Kanaky, the cave envelops the public and cradles them, like an organic cocoon connected to life.
Grace and Balance Amidst the Buildings
Next, it is the performing arts that take over Les Extatiques with the Collective XY, a group of around twenty acrobats and equilibrium artists who will offer two shows. “Les Voyages” will be discovered from June 8 to 12, at various locations on the site, while “Möbius” will be visible for a single performance on Tuesday, June 9 at the foot of the grand arch’s steps.
The festival gives us a taste: “Without stages, without platforms, just with air and the city as the receptacle of a living organism, these troubadours of modern times will go for a week, in small commandos or large ensembles, towards those who walk, work, cross the slab out of habit or necessity.” Plenty of opportunities to see the buildings, asphalt, and glass towers of La Défense taken over by acrobats who will make it their playground.
“By highlighting the living, ecology, and invisible worlds, the programming offers a sensitive counterpoint to the image often associated with La Défense as a place of work, performance, and productivity. These themes reveal less perceptible dimensions of the site: its ecosystems, its interstices, its buried memories, its hidden temporalities, but also those who inhabit it and live it daily,” concludes Noëllie Faustino, director of the events department.
The event “Les Extatiques” takes place from April 3 to June 12, 2026 in the La Défense district, Paris.
Konbini, partner of Les Extatiques.
