Welcome! A dialogue between contemporary art and national monuments

Past exhibition

The Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) and the CMN are joining forces to offer visitors to the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel an unprecedented encounter with contemporary art.

From 26 June to 16 November 2025

Monument opening times
Admission

Included in the entrance ticket
Public
General public
Of note
Exhibition presented in the Refectory of the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey
Free discovery of the work or short presentations (15-20 minutes / limited to 14 people), every day during the monument's opening hours.
Short visits
From 30 June to 6 July
Short presentation of the installation :
at 11 am and 4 pm
Places limited to 14 people
No reservation required

Presentation

A selection of emblematic works from the Cnap 's national collection are to be discovered in 7 national monuments throughout France, from spring 2025 to 2026. The monuments concerned are the Châteaux of Pierrefonds, Cadillac, Oiron and Châteaudun, the Hôtel de la Marine, the Towers of La Rochelle and the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey is presenting a contemporary installation entitled "Marulho" by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles, one of the highlights of the Cnap collection. The work will be on display in the Réfectoire des moines between June and November 2025.

Created in 1991, the work is remarkable in its simplicity, creating a seascape that visitors are invited to explore. The booklets reproducing photographs of the sea, open on the floor, become the waves of an expanse that visitors experience from the pontoon overlooking it. The work is accompanied by a soundtrack that plunges us into another dimension. The word ' water ', whispered by 80 people of all ages in thirty different languages, reminds us of the essential nature of this element.

This work takes on renewed significance at a time when we need to take account of the ecological emergency. The 2025 France-Brazil Season is structured around this theme, with one of its three themes being climate and ecological transition. Presented for the first time in a heritage context, Marulho finds a particular echo in the heart of the abbey, offering a new experience of the refectory through its poetic and immersive dimension.

Find out all about the installations planned for the other monuments in the network here .

The artist

Cildo Meireles was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948. His work, which is essentially sculptural and installation-based, aims to interact with the public to raise awareness of the injustices and evils of our world. He has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions, including major retrospectives at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York in 1999, the Tate Modern in London in 2008 and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona in 2009.