"Musées Hors Frontières" at Frac Grand Large: an artistic and architectural dialogue to celebrate Franco-German cooperation

Published on 21 January 2026

The "Musées Hors Frontières" exhibition is the result of a major Franco-German cooperation between the Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France and the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, located in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). With the support of the agreement between the Institut Français and the Hauts-de-France Region, this exceptional artistic dialogue between the collections bears witness to an ambition shared by the Hauts-de-France Region and the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia to strengthen cross-border cultural outreach, while drawing on the industrial history common to both territories.

The Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France and the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, located in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), have signed a major Franco-German cooperation agreement.

The exhibition explores the close links between art, craft and design, highlighting the pioneering role of the Kunstmuseen Krefeld - grouping the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum and the Mies van der Rohe villas - at the crossroads of modern creation and industrial production. Breaking free from a strictly chronological reading, the tour brings together archives, historical works and contemporary proposals to question our ways of inhabiting space. From early 20th-century advertising art to Bauhaus pieces, via the avant-gardes of the 1960s with figures such as Yves Klein and Sonia Delaunay, the exhibition highlights artists' commitment to thinking about social and ecological alternatives through the public collection, a veritable tool of memory and evolving critical space.

This cross-programming was articulated in two highlights: a first part was held in Krefeld (Germany) from April 28 to September 8, 2024while the second part will be presented at Frac Grand Large in Dunkerque from January 24 to August 30, 2026.

Museums Abroad" exhibition

On view from January 24 to August 30, 2026 at Dunkerque - Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France.

This deployment in France also includes an extension to the Villa Cavrois, in Croix, creating a bridge between Robert Mallet-Stevens and Mies van der Rohe, major architects of the 20th century. This ambitious cooperation extends to an educational dimension, involving students from the École supérieure d'art de Dunkerque-Tourcoing and the Krefeld Faculty of Design in collaborative workshops, reaffirming the importance of transmission and European mobility for younger generations of designers.

This cooperation enables the development of a cross-border platform of excellence in the museum sector and is supported for this purpose by the convention between the Institut français and the Hauts-de-France Region, thus helping to strengthen the cultural diplomacy of Hauts-de-France and France.