Lumières sur le Quai Festival
A festival of desirable futures
At the intersection of arts, science, technology, and imagination, the Lumières sur le Quai festival showcases visual and digital arts through exhibitions and artistic and scientific installations connected to the theme of the year’s main exhibition.
To build desirable futures, what research should be prioritized? What technical and societal innovations should be encouraged? What new ideas and aesthetics should be explored?
To address these questions, the festival invites scientists, artists, citizens, and makers to share and co-construct, with the public, their research, reflections, and creations through a Forum of Desirable Futures and a rich program of participatory workshops and event weekends.
Outdoor photo exhibition on the shipping containers at the Allées Jules Guesde Festival © Emmanuel Grimault
Lumières sur le Quai 2026
October 17 through November 1, 2026
OUR FUTURES TOGETHER
This year, the Quai des Savoirs is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Rather than giving in to nostalgia—and staying true to its mission of exploring today’s world to envision tomorrow’s—the public is invited, as part of the Lumières sur le Quai festival, to collectively imagine the next ten, twenty, or even thirty years.
From October 17 to November 1, exhibitions, screenings, immersive installations, discussions, and workshops will invite visitors to build “Our Futures Together”.
Festive and popular, the festival brings together scientists, artists, and members of the public every year to discuss major societal issues. For the 2026 edition, the future of science will be at the heart of the program. How do scientists envision the research of tomorrow? How are these futures explored, portrayed, and brought to light by artists—whether they are science fiction writers, comic book creators, animated film directors, street artists, or photographers? How do citizens envision the world of tomorrow? The horizons to be explored will be as vast as they are numerous, and the encounters as passionate as they are fascinating!
Previous editions
Lumières sur le Quai 2025
For its 11th edition, in conjunction with the conclusion of the exhibition Comme des moutons ?. Because we are not sheep but we love to share festive moments, Lumières sur le Quai returns for three days of celebration, collective energy, and shared emotions. It will be about crowds and individuals, collective behavior, democracy, collective creation, young children in crowds, and synchronization.
Lumières sur le Quai 2024
Creating with AI?
Such was the theme of its tenth edition, which coincided with the closing of the AI: Double Je exhibition. What is AI’s take on art? And what role remains for humans? Over the course of two weeks, the public was invited to explore these questions through a variety of artistic and scientific experiences, including installations, exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and performances.
Lumières sur le Quai 2023
Play with fire
For its 9th edition, in conjunction with the conclusion of the exhibition Feux, mégafeux, the Lumières sur le Quai festival centers around the theme ‘Play with Fire’ and explores pyrotechnic creations from various perspectives: live arts, street arts, techniques and technologies based on combustion, ranging from cooking to propulsion, from culinary arts to space industry. This is the challenge of this new edition, at the intersection of visual arts, participatory sciences, and maker culture: playing with fire while reconnecting with climate hope!
Lumières sur le Quai 2022
Fiction or reality?
For the 8th edition of Lumières sur le Quai, in continuation with the exhibition Esprit Critique : détrompez-vous !, the festival delve into the dangerous connections between fiction and reality. In a world grappling with fake news, deep fakes, conspiracy theories, and other false sciences, how can we discern the truth? Why always pit fiction against reality? Explore reality through fiction, illuminate fiction with reality. This is the daring challenge of this 8th edition!
Lumières sur le Quai 2021
Reshape our bonds
That’s the challenge set by Quai des Savoirs for the 7th edition of Lumières sur le Quai around the theme taking back control of our futures. To conclude the season of the exhibition De l’Amour presented in the same year, the Quai des Savoirs addresses issues of coexistence, the trust we place in science, the space we allocate to others on the planet, and many more.