Across the road at the Petit Palais, EE72 founder and former British Vogue editorial director Edward Enninful will curate a day of the fair’s official Conversations programme, taking place on Friday. Conceived as a prelude to his upcoming exhibition at Tate Britain in 2026 — a survey of creativity over the course of the 1990s — the running order comprises one-on-one conversations between the acclaimed fashion editor and four era-defining artists: Yinka Shonibare, Juergen Teller, Sonia Boyce and Mark Leckey.
“From the outset, Art Basel Paris was conceived as a fair that embraces cross-disciplinary dialogue and fosters meaningful partnerships,” de Bellis explains. “In a city where art, fashion, design and luxury are so deeply intertwined, it feels natural to reflect that convergence.”
One of the most significant partnerships between Art Basel Paris and a major luxury player takes place outside of the main fair. For the second year running, Miu Miu comes on board as public programme official partner, with the fashion house once again taking up residence at the Palais d’Iena, its Paris Fashion Week home. This year, the space has been given over to Turner Prize-winning British artist Helen Marten, who has transformed the rationalist masterpiece into a performance project that expresses the expansive remit of her practice. Titled 30 Blizzards, the built environment will be anchored by sculpture and video installations, and activated by operatic soundscapes and characterful performances by Miu Miu-clad actors.
A string of satellite events
As with any art fair of its scale, Art Basel Paris prompts a dizzying array of parallel activations. After all, the outsized number of major luxury players with either headquarters in — or profound relationships with — the French capital makes this week a no-brainer for staging events.
On Monday night, Chanel Culture Fund threw an intimate dinner to honour its partnership with Alphabet Magazine on a special edition celebrating La Pausa, Gabrielle Chanel’s recently restored French Riviera home, through the prism of 26 contemporary creatives. The same night, Dior hosted a cocktail at its Avenue Montaigne emporium to toast the 10th anniversary of Lady Dior Art, featuring artist editions of the house’s iconic handbag by Patrick Eugène, Lakwena Maciver, Ju Ting and more.
At its Champs Élysées flagship, Guerlain will celebrate the centenary of Shalimar, one of its most recognised fragrances, with a three-story exhibition on the timeless theme of love, featuring works by a blockbuster roster that includes Niki de Saint Phalle, David Hockney, Ren Hang and Marina Abramovic and Ulay. Simon Porte Jacquemus flexes his curatorial muscle with ‘Mythes’, an exhibition at Collège des Bernardins that brings sculptures of antiquity into conversation with bronze casts by Aristide Maillol, while in Bastille, mid-century French design specialist Galerie Patrick Seguin presents an exhibition curated by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello, who has selected a number of furniture pieces by Charlotte Perriand, one of the era’s most influential designers, to be produced in a very limited edition.
At Dover Street Market Paris, Joopiter — Pharrell Williams’s auction house — will host an “unprecedented tattoo auction”, a release reads, featuring inked designs by creatives and artists including Lauren Halsey, Sarah Andelman and Thom Browne. Close by, in Haut-Marais, Issey Miyake’s A-Poc Able line will present an exhibition conceived in collaboration with Japanese artist Eugene Kangawa and architect Tsuyoshi Tane. Exploring the compositional logic of the latter’s Light and Shadow Inside Me series, the resulting capsule collection and immersive installation will debut in Paris before travelling to Tokyo and Osaka later in the year.