Mediterranean Season 2026
Project support
In Marseille in June 2023, the President of the Republic announced the organization of a Mediterranean Season in 2026, which enables joint projects from all shores of the Mediterranean to emerge.
The Mediterranean Season 2026 highlights the richness and diversity of Mediterranean cultures. It celebrates the artists, creators and young talents of these regions, promoting cultural and human exchanges.
Supported by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture in conjunction with the Interministerial Delegation for the Mediterranean, Saison Méditerranée 2026 is implemented by the Institut français with Julie Kretzschmar as general curator.
The Mediterranean Season, after a popular and festive opening in Marseille, will take place mainly in France, throughout the country, between May 15 and October 31, 2026.
It radiates out to the shores of the Mediterranean through the organization of several events in conjunction with artistic scenes, cultural structures in the region and the French diplomatic network abroad.
This Season is an opportunity to promote initiatives by young people and diasporas, to support creation and innovation through the circulation of ideas and people, and to encourage cooperation between civil societies, in particular with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon.
Actualités
Mediterranean Season 2026: over 200 events in France
16 February 2026
La Saison Méditerranée 2026 : plus de 200 évènements en France
16 février 2026
5 themes
La Saison has proposed 5 themes to address contemporary issues in common: speculative utopias, plural identities, contemporary spiritualities, the collective history of migrations, the construction of narratives.
- Lifestyles, fragility and new adaptations, environmental initiatives;
- Solidarities and collective practices around the repair and preservation of living things.
The Mediterranean Sea is a zone of vulnerabilitý at the heart of climate emergencies, conducive to the invention of practices that link social and environmental justice for a sustainable world.
- Hybridization, fluidity, multiplicity and agentivity of identifications;
- Language mixing, linguistic creolization.
The reinvention of plural identities, embodied in particular by younger generations, produces alternative and inclusive representations that combine particular identities and transcultural imaginaries.
- The reinvention and transformation of rituals;
- Transmissions and legacies.
How the imprint of contemporary spiritualities penetrates secular and everyday worlds in cultures on the shores of the Mediterranean, how these inhabit and share popular cultures.
- Memorial and biographical histories
- Histories of binationals
Memories of migrations, diasporic histories can be vectors of a foundation for thinking about the common and the present, and composing from pathways and heritages, a living and contemporary national narrative.
- Documenting the present, living archives;
- Making fiction of the real.
Civil societies are mobilized on global issues and initiators of new dialogues between individuals, state systems and regimes of power.
Commissariat
The general curator of the Season is Ms Julie Kretzschmar.
The call for projects took place in two phases and is now closed. The list of structures whose projects have been approved is as follows:
- Edition 100 Trames - Literature & Publishing
- 3 bis f - Centre d'arts contemporains d'intérêt national - Debates
- Accrorap - Cie Kader Attou - Spectacle vivant
- Actoral - Performing arts, Literature & Publishing
- Aflam - Cinema
- Agence Karkadé - Literature & Publishing
- Agora - Pôle National Cirque - Performing arts
- Université Aix-Marseille (amU) - Higher education & sciences
- Ardèche Images - Etats généraux du film documentaire - Cinema
- LA DÉTER - association ACHLES - Performing arts
- Villa Gillet - Literature & Publishing
- Festival d'Avignon - Performing arts
- Théâtre des Baumettes - Performing arts
- Les SUBS - Performing arts
- Passages Transfestival - Performing arts
- Atelier de Paris / CDCN - Performing arts
- Ateliers Médicis - Visual arts
- Bi:Pole - Music
- Bibliothèque nationale de France - Patrimoine, Literature & Publishing
- Canal 93 - Music
- C.A.M.P / réseau Scalene - Performing arts
- Cave Poésie René Gouzenne - Literature & Publishing
- Centre des Monuments Nationaux - Visual arts, Performing arts
- Centre du patrimoine arménien - Architecture, Music
- Centre international de poésie Marseille - Literature & Publishing
- Centre Pompidou - Literature & Publishing, Cinema, Performing Arts
- Centre Photographique Marseille - Les Ateliers de l'image - Photography
- Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse - Performing arts
- Château de Servières - Visual arts
- Cie Rayess Bek - Music
- La Chartreuse - Literature & Publishing,Performing arts
- Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris - Music
- Cité internationale de la langue française - Performing arts
- Cité Internationale des Arts x Wonder Cabinet - Visual arts, Sound creation
- Centre national de la danse - Performing arts
- Centre d'art contemporain de Châteauvert - Visual arts
- Multitude - Music
- Nouvelles Rencontres d'Averroès - Des livres comme des idées - Debate
- Divertimento - Music
- Documentaire sur grand écran - Cinema
- Festival d'Aurillac - Performing arts
- École de la deuxième chance de Marseille - Sport
- Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Higher education & sciences
- Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille - Architecture
- École nationale supérieure de la photographie d'Arles - Photography
- École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre (ENSATT) - Performing arts
- École Supérieure d'Art de Clermont Métropole - Visual arts
- Elogie-Siemp - Visual arts
- La Condition Publique - Visual arts
- Universcience - Higher education & sciences
- Palais de la Porte Dorée - Heritage, Visual arts, Cinema
- Festival International des Arts de Bordeaux Métropole (FAB) - Performing arts
- Festival d'Automne à Paris - Performing arts
- Festival de l'Histoire de l'Art - Visual arts
- Douarnenez Film Festival - Cinema
- Marseille Film Festival - Performing arts
- Festival d'Aix-en-Provence - Music
- Festival du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Montpellier (CINEMED) - Cinema
- Fondation Art Explora - Visual arts
- Fondation Camargo - Visual arts
- C'est pas du luxe! - Fondation pour le logement des défavorisés - Visual Arts
- Fort Pop - Music
- Fotokino - Visual Arts, Fashion & Design
- FRAC Champagne-Ardenne - Visual Arts
- Frac Île-de-France - Visual Arts
- Frac Occitanie - Visual Arts
- Frac Poitou-Charentes - Visual Arts
- Global Art Production - Music
- Centre national de création musicale (GMEM) - Music
- Grand Palais - Music
- Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR) - Visual arts
- Heritage & Civilization - Digital creation & Audiovisual
- ICI - Les Cuisines de l'extraordinaire - Gastronomy
- Campus art Méditerranée - INSEAMM - Higher education & science
- Institut des Afriques - Cinema
- Institut des Cultures d'Islam - Visual arts
- Institut du monde arabe - Visual arts
- Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) - Digital creation & Audiovisual
- Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) - Higher education & sciences
- Jeu de Paume - Château de Tours - Visual arts
- L'Atelline - Arts vivants en espace public - Live performance
- L'Opératrice - Live performance
- Point Éphémère - Sound creation, Pluridisciplinaire
- La Citadelle de Marseille - Heritage, Digital creation & Audiovisual, Visual arts
- La compagnie, lieu de création - Visual arts
- La Halle - Centre d'art de Pont-en-Royans - Visual arts
- La Magnanerie - Performing arts
- La Maison DAR - Cinema
- La Poursuite - Performing arts
- LABgamerz - Music
- Le Carreau du Temple - Gastronomy
- Le Phare - CCN du Havre Normandie - Performing arts
- Le Nouveau Printemps - Festival de création contemporaine - Fashion & Design
- Les Rencontres à l'échelle - B/P - Performing arts
- Les Poussières - Visual arts
- Les Rendez-vous de l'Histoire - Debates
- Les Têtes de l'Art - Debates
- LGBT Dance Pride Off - Performing arts
- Lieux Fictifs - Cinema
- Lieux Publics - Performing arts
- lille3000 - Visual arts
- Livres des deux rives/Oh les beaux jours! - Literature & Publishing
- Lyon BD - Literature & Publishing
- Collectif Ma'an / Jeanne Barret - Visual arts
- Maison des Mondes Africains (MansA) - Music
- Maison Julien Gracq - Literature & Publishing
- Marseille Jazz des cinq continents - Music
- MC93 - Maison de la Culture de Seine Saint Denis - Performing arts
- Menart Fair - Visual arts
- MUCEM - Performing arts
- Musée d'Orsay - Visual arts
- Palais de Tokyo - Visual arts
- Parallèle - Visual arts
- Plaine Commune - Visual arts
- Musées de Marseille - Heritage, Visual arts
- Printemps Ô Proche-Orient - Visual arts
- Radio Grenouille / Euphonia - Sound creation
- Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis - Performing arts
- Les Rencontres d'Arles - Photography
- Réseau Euromed France - Visual arts, Debate
- Salon du monde arabo-amazigh - Debate
- Sayat nova - Literature & Publishing
- Friche la Belle de Mai- Visual arts
- Seconde nature - Digital creation & Audiovisual
- Sonorama - Sound creation
- Souffle collectif - Music
- Les Suds - Music
- Théâtre de la Bastille - Performing arts
- Théâtre des 13 vents - CDN - Performing arts
- Théâtre du Châtelet - Performing arts
- Théâtre Joliette - Performing arts
- Théâtre Molière Sète, Scène nationale - Music
- Théâtre national de Strasbourg - Performing arts
- Trempo - Music
- UNI'SONS - Festival Arabesques - Music
- Université Lumière Lyon 2 - APPI, Université Bordeaux Montaigne - Higher education & sciences
- Université Paris 8 - Higher education & sciences
- Université Paris Nanterre - Higher education & sciences
- ViaDanse CCN - Performing arts
- Villes des musiques du monde - Music
The projects are currently being consolidated.
Final programming may be subject to change and will be unveiled at a press conference in February 2026.
Organizers
With the exceptional partnership of
With the generous support of
Contact
To contact the Seasons and Highlights division of the Institut français : saisonmediterranee@institutfrancais.com
