Palais de Tokyo

The palace that remained under construction

The Palais du cinéma that never opened left the west wing raw: a concrete structure from 1937, half-demolished, looking more like an industrial wasteland than a palace from the International Exposition. Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal did not rebuild that skeleton: they inhabited it. In January 2002, the Palais de Tokyo opened as a site of contemporary creation, without a permanent collection, led by Nicolas Bourriaud and Jérôme Sans. In 2012, the same duo—later Pritzker Prize winners—occupied the entire wing: 22,000 m² that turned the venue into the largest contemporary art center in Europe.

A palace that is also a club

In the basements, where the rooms of the Cinémathèque française once were, YOYO operates: a raw concrete volume, mezzanine, and about ten meters high, designed for electronic music, concerts, fashion shows, and parties. It is not a nomadic brand: the club is inside the palace, under concession (Paris Icons / Paris Society). In 2026, the dance floor was re-equipped with an Adamson CS-Series system. In parallel, the oval sala 37 —a cinema walled up during the time of the Musée national d'Art moderne and reopened in 2012— has functioned since 2024 as 37dB, a laboratory for listening, concerts, and DJ sets linked to the seasons. Pieces such as Corps Perdu by Lamin Fofana have played there, as part of the ECHO DELAY REVERB cycle.

Long nights by the Seine

The name comes from the old quai de Tokio, today avenue de New York. The Art Deco building overlooks the Seine and the Eiffel Tower; the parvis, nicknamed le dôme by skaters, coexists with the Jardin aux Habitants, the restaurants Monsieur Bleu and Bambini, the bookstore, and the Lasco Project, which since 2012 has invited street art into the bowels of the palace. The cultural schedule is intentionally anomalous: from noon to 22:00, until midnight on Thursdays, closed on Tuesdays. Club nights and private events extend the pulse when the exhibition halls are already cleared.

A venue to inhabit, not just to look at

The Palais de Tokyo is not a classic nightclub or a museum of glass cases. It is a hybrid venue where unfinished architecture serves equally for an immersive carte blanche, an electronic set, or a party until dawn. Guillaume Désanges has presided over the institution since 2022. The concrete is still visible. The dance floor, too.