Lygia Pape
Lygia Pape, 2002, Ttéia 1 C. Photo: MAM Rio | Fabio Souza

Across the Atlantic, French cultural institutions also welcomed Brazilian artists. More than 300 events were held in 50 cities between June and December 2025 – museums, cultural centers, and festivals adjusted their schedules to accommodate Brazilian artists, particularly in the visual arts, with an exhibition at the Musée Orsay, one of the country's most important museums, showcasing works by Lucas Arruda.

According to curator Nicolas Gausserand, the Brazilian artist had been on their radar for some time – but, with the Season, the project materialized in a few months, and Arruda became the first person from the “Global South” to exhibit at the Orsay. In “Qu'importe le paysage” (What Matters the Landscape), he presents works developed around investigations of light, similar to those of the Impressionist masters exhibited at the Orsay. “Light is at the center of my work. It is movement,” stated the artist. In turn, he adopts a rigorous approach that leads him from figuration to abstraction, creating ambiguous spaces, like a parallel reality.

Thirty-four works by Arruda were exhibited at the Impressionist Gallery between April and July of this year. The institution compared his work to the landscapes of iconic Impressionist figures, such as the Rouen Cathedral series, in which Claude Monet painted variations in his perception of a place according to the intensity of light. In the "desert-model" series, Arruda portrays imaginary landscapes where the intensity of light creates spaces between the abstract and the figurative, interacting with works by Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Théodore Rousseau, Gustave Courbet, among others.
According to Gausserand, the French public was interested in the Brazilian artist, and Portuguese was heard daily in the exhibition rooms. Another exhibition also emerged, dedicated to his work, this time at the Carré d'Art in Nîmes, in the south of the country – “Deserto-modelo” (Model Desert), on display until October, exhibited paintings by Arruda, multimedia works, and installations, made at different times throughout the artist's career.

Another highlight of the season was the exhibition “José Antônio da Silva: Painting Brazil,” which presented the French public with more information about the life and work of the São Paulo artist. The exhibition opened at the Grenoble Museum, with more than one hundred works by the artist representing the main themes of his work. Due to his vibrant color palette, expressive strokes with quick brushstrokes, and explorations of rural scenes, the artist earned the nickname “Brazilian Van Gogh.”

Curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, the public was introduced to the artist's imagery: rural landscapes, scenes of relaxation in the countryside, and the advancement of agriculture in nature. The exhibition later traveled to the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre and the Museum of Contemporary Art at USP in São Paulo.

José Antônio da Silva embodies the figure of the deeply engaged, self-taught folk artist. Discovered by two important critics during a local exhibition in the 1940s, he continued producing art until his death in 1996, evolving and flirting with different styles and themes. At first glance, his colorful and playful works, with elements of folklore, may seem apolitical. But they were a denunciation of the social reality of agricultural workers in Brazil – Silva saw himself as a figure capable of defining the “visual identity” of Brazilian painting.

And, 50 years after its first exhibition dedicated to the Brazilian-Polish artist Krans Krajcberg in France – which was the inaugural exhibition at the Centre Pompidou museum in Paris – the city's public is once again introduced to this pioneer of ecological art. "The Cry for the Planet" was on display from March to August at the Espace Frans Krajcberg in Paris, and explored the four elements from the perspective of Frans Krajcberg, whose work is marked by a commitment to the preservation of nature, often proposing a dialogue between contemporary art and the natural world.

The exhibition, in two parts – from March to May, dedicated to earth and water, and from May to August, to fire and air – proposes a sensory exploration. The reading of Krajcberg's work, which almost exclusively dealt with contemporary environmental concerns, can be done in dialogue with five contemporary artists – Rodrigo Braga, Daniela Busarello, Maurice Dubroca, Matheus Ribs, and Thérèse Vian – whose works were incorporated selectively throughout the exhibition.

The curatorial goal was to bring his work out of obscurity and introduce his blend of art and political and environmental engagement, explicitly dialoguing with the themes proposed as central axes for the France-Brazil Season: climate, democracy, and cultural diversity. In addition to the indoor galleries, a set of monumental sculptures by the artist was installed outdoors on the Chemin du Montparnasse.

Also in Paris, Rio de Janeiro native Ernesto Neto took over the Grand Palais with a monumental installation made of materials such as crochet, shells, and spices. The artist proposes a textile architecture: the visitor walks, interacts, smells the work, and ends up even "inhabiting" it. Entitled "Our Boat Drum Earth," it uses the metaphor of navigation (boat) and the drum (rhythm) to speak of cultural connections, movements between worlds, and the relationship between the human body and the Earth.

The exhibition also featured sound and percussive activation, in which instruments from around the world were integrated into the installation, and the public could interact with them. Workshops, concerts, and guided tours were part of the extended experience, connecting art, Brazilian culture, ecology, and textiles.

The Bourse de Commerce hosted the country's first exhibition dedicated to the work of Lygia Pape – “Tisser l'espace” focuses on how Pape constructed her art: she designed it not as a fixed object, but as an environment, a relationship, an experience — a mesh that envelops the public.
The exhibition brings together key works from Lygia Pape's career—from abstract prints from her early work to the artist's book "Livro Noite e Dia III" (Night and Day Book III), created between 1963 and 1976, and a selection of experimental films. The central focus is the illuminated installation "Ttéia 1," belonging to the Pinault Collection. It consists of copper wires stretched across the space, interacting with light and the movement of the public, creating an immersive sensory experience.


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