Photo : Le Musée Imaginaire d’Oli
Oli’s Imaginary Museum
The Grand Palais presents Oli’s Imaginary Museum, an exhibition conceived by artist and musician Oli (Bigflo & Oli), with the complicity of Jérôme Sans. From room to room, traverse the inner states that give birth to a work: inspiration, doubt, the gaze of others, refuge, and transmission. A journey between the worlds that shaped Oli.
Grand Palais (Paris 8th)
About
Conceived as an initiatory narrative, a journey that invites visitors to walk through the various rooms of the exhibition as a succession of inner states, "Oli’s Imaginary Museum" lays bare the mechanisms at work in the creative process: the original spark of a vocation, the flash of inspiration, the vertigo of doubt, the confrontation with the gaze of others, the intimate refuge, and the act of transmission. By contextualizing a creator's inner process, this exhibition weaves links from one world to another, from Oli’s Franco-Algerian and Argentine origins to Paris, from street culture to museum culture, bringing together, without hierarchy, cultural universes that everything seems to oppose.
Hailing from popular culture, shaped by the stage and by words, Oli has made the dialogue between disciplines and audiences a second nature. He thus takes up the concept of the imaginary museum formulated by André Malraux, whose 50th death anniversary is marked in 2026: a museum conceived as the portrait of a singular mind, traversed by multiple cultures, heterogeneous temporalities, and registers that art history has long prioritized. Thus liberated from cultural, geographical, and symbolic borders, Oli’s Imaginary Museum mingles icons from different territories by breaking free from traditional categories: contemporary art, urban cultures, underground scenes, sports, cinema, fashion, or graffiti.
A choral work, Oli’s voice dialogues in this exhibition with those of artists invited to inhabit its spaces, giving rise to several original creations. A true common thread, sound accompanies the visitor from one room to another: voices, archives, music, and the rumor of the city lead them to evolve among the meanderings of an artist's consciousness.
Spread over nearly 1,300 m² and three levels, bringing together about a hundred works, the exhibition extends in Paris the curatorial intention of the musician initiated at the Abattoirs FRAC Occitanie in Toulouse. It ends with an act of transmission that gradually shifts the gaze from Oli to that of the visitor, who is invited to take part in the narrative and become one of its actors. The imaginary museum then ceases to be individual to become collective: neither the story of a life nor a collection of personal taste, the exhibition is above all the universal experience of becoming oneself despite the noise of the world.
Our take on this event
Forget static exhibitions, Oli turns this massive venue into a vibrant diary of his creative evolution. Bridging the gap between street culture and contemporary art, this immersive experience invites you to lose yourself in his memories and find a new reflection of your own path.
From December 2, 2026, to February 21, 2027, the Grand Palais presents The Imaginary Museum of Oli. This exhibition invites you to explore the creative process through a hundred works spanning contemporary art, urban culture, cinema, and sports. Spread across three levels, this immersive experience examines the inner journey of an artist, from the spark of inspiration to the act of transmission. The space is fully accessible to wheelchair users and features specific resources for deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, and partially sighted visitors, including sign language. Ticket prices range from 0 to 22 euros.
Housed within the Grand Palais in Paris's 8th arrondissement, The Imaginary Museum of Oli occupies 1,300 square meters of exhibition space. Running until February 21, 2027, the display challenges traditional boundaries by blending street culture, high art, and personal heritage. Inspired by André Malraux’s vision, the exhibition acts as a portrait of a singular consciousness, bridging disparate worlds of fashion, music, and graffiti without hierarchy.
Throughout the three-level venue, visitors are guided by a soundscape of voices, archives, and ambient urban noise. This collaborative project invites guests to move through the artist's inner world, ultimately shifting the focus from the creator to the visitor, who becomes an active participant in the story. The venue is open on Fridays from 10:00 to 22:00, and from Tuesdays to Thursdays, as well as on weekends, from 10:00 to 19:30. The exhibition ensures inclusion for all, offering full wheelchair accessibility and dedicated support for visitors who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired, with sign language integrated into the experience.
