PARIS, Oct 24 — While blue-chip galleries and collectors pack the Grand Palais for Art Basel Paris, the city's experimental underground is staging its own parallel universe this week. Reference Festival — the Berlin-born multidisciplinary platform founded in 2019 — has brought its "FREIE KUNST" (Free Art) edition to Paris for the first time, running from October 22 to 25 across four venues with a roster spanning FKA twigs, Richie Hawtin, Eartheater and Michele Lamy.
The four-day program unfolds at the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Silencio club, Dover Street Market Paris and the Reference Salon, mixing immersive installations, live performances, film screenings, intimate discussions and all-night club sessions. Its stated aim: to explore the relationship between creative freedom and artistic expression at one of the busiest moments on the international cultural calendar.
Illustration: a grand Parisian exhibition hall filled with an immersive avant-garde art installation during an art festival
What Happened
Reference Festival's Paris debut opened on Wednesday, October 22, with satellite events scheduled earlier in the week, according to coverage by Hypebeast and Metal Magazine. The edition, titled "FREIE KUNST" — German for "free art" or "fine art" — was curated by Reference Studios, the communications agency founded by Mumi Haïati that has run the festival since its 2019 launch as a 24-hour fashion event in Berlin.
The lineup reads like a map of contemporary culture's most porous borders. FKA twigs and artist Michaela Meise anchor the performance program, according to OVERSTANDARD, while techno pioneer Richie Hawtin joins digital artist John Gerrard for a twenty-four-hour experience at the Institut du Monde Arabe — opening with a conversation moderated by former Art Basel director Marc Spiegler and continuing into a twelve-hour club session, Metal Magazine reported.
Elsewhere in the program, Eartheater performs at the Institut du Monde Arabe, choreographer and dancer Josh Johnson takes the stage, and the club lineup runs into the early hours with Blackhaine and Bobby Beethoven. At Dover Street Market Paris, Munky of KoЯn appeared for a meet-and-greet and merchandise signing with designs by Kolya Nemoi and Bjarne Melgaard, while installations by Donna Huanca, Wombat and Gabriel Moses add a visual dimension beyond the dance floor.
Background
Reference Festival first made headlines as "Berlin's 24-Hour Fashion Festival" before expanding into art, music and technology, becoming a biannual gathering for experimental creative voices, Hypebeast noted. Its Berlin Art Week edition has long explored what happens when figures from different creative worlds share one program — and the Paris move marks its first edition outside Germany, landing deliberately during the city's autumn art-season peak.
That peak is Art Basel Paris itself: the fair's fifth edition, running October 23–25 at the Grand Palais under new director Karim Crippa, brings together more than 200 exhibitors from over 40 countries and territories, according to art publication ACCA. Parallel fairs are running across the city too — Asia Now for work from across the Asian continent, and Paris International, which europesays described as building a strong reputation for cutting-edge presentations.
The counter-programming dynamic is the point. "While blue-chip gallerists and international collectors swarm the Grand Palais for Art Basel Paris, the city's experimental underground is carving out its own parallel universe," OVERSTANDARD wrote. The Business of Fashion's Mimosa Spencer, the publication's Europe editor based in Paris, reported that founder Mumi Haïati described the tradition as a "radical and unhinged exchange of ideas" — a phrase Haïati expanded on for Hypebeast, saying the 2026 program considers "the conjunction of freedom and creativity today" and brings "the entire scope of our network together for this meeting of minds."
Illustration: an experimental music performance on stage at a Paris art festival with dramatic colored lighting
Why It Matters
The Paris edition captures a shift in how culture is organized and consumed: the most talked-about moments of fair week may not happen on the fair floor at all. Reference Festival's model — fashion designers beside electronic musicians beside digital artists, in venues ranging from a concept store to an Arab-world cultural institute — treats disciplinary boundaries as material to be worked with rather than lines to respect.
It also reflects Paris's own changing gravity in the art world. Five years into Art Basel's Paris edition, the city is consolidating its position as autumn's art capital, and the density of parallel programming — from Asia Now to Paris International to the Reference pop-ups — is what turns a trade fair into a cultural season. As one overview put it, the range of shows across the board tells the story of a landmark year for Paris, even as the balance between London and Paris in the autumn season is still finding its identity.
For the participating artists, the stakes are practical as well as symbolic: a week when the international art world's attention is concentrated in one city is when careers get made, and a program built around "artistic autonomy, radical transparency, and public intervention" — in OVERSTANDARD's description — positions itself as the counter-weight to the commercial cadence of the fair floor.
Illustration: fashion-forward artists and collectors mingling inside a historic glass-roofed Paris exhibition palace during art fair week
What Happens Next
The festival runs through Sunday, October 25, with the Hawtin–Gerrard twenty-four-hour experience and the late-night club sessions at Silencio among the weekend anchors. Art Basel Paris closes the same day, ending a week that has effectively turned the French capital into a temporary capital of the global art world.
Beyond the weekend, the open question is whether the Paris edition becomes a fixture. The festival's Berlin editions have run biannually for years; a successful Paris debut — measured in attendance, critical response and the networks it seeds — would likely make the "FREIE KUNST" format a recurring part of Paris Art Week. For now, as Haïati told Hypebeast, the goal was simpler: a meeting of minds around the idea of free art, staged at the exact moment the art world was already in town.
Sponsored: explore today's featured sponsored offers
FAQ
What is Reference Festival?
Reference Festival is a multidisciplinary platform founded in Berlin in 2019 by Mumi Haïati and run by the communications agency Reference Studios. It began as a 24-hour fashion event and has expanded into a biannual gathering spanning art, fashion, music and technology.
When and where is the 2026 Paris edition?
The Paris debut, titled "FREIE KUNST," runs October 22–25, 2026, with satellite events earlier in the week, across four venues: the Institut du Monde Arabe, Silencio, Dover Street Market Paris and the Reference Salon.
What does "FREIE KUNST" mean?
"Freie Kunst" is German for "free art" (or "fine art"). The edition uses the theme to explore the relationship between creative freedom and artistic expression through performances, installations, discussions, film screenings and club nights.
Who is performing at the festival?
According to published programs, the lineup includes FKA twigs, Eartheater, Richie Hawtin (in a twenty-four-hour collaboration with digital artist John Gerrard), Michele Lamy, choreographer Josh Johnson, Blackhaine, Bobby Beethoven, Donna Huanca and Gabriel Moses.
How does it relate to Art Basel Paris?
The festival deliberately coincides with Art Basel Paris — the fair's fifth edition, October 23–25 at the Grand Palais with 200+ exhibitors from 40+ countries — positioning itself as an experimental counter-program to the commercial fair floor.
Sources
- Hypebeast — "Reference Festival Opens 2026 Edition in Paris," October 2026 — https://hypebeast.com/2026/10/reference-festival-2026-art-basel-paris-info
- Metal Magazine — "Reference Festival 2026," October 2026 — https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/reference-festival-2026
- Business of Fashion — "Reference Festival to Host 'Freie Kunst' Event at Art Basel Paris," September 2026 — https://www.businessoffashion.com:443/news/luxury/reference-festival-art-basel-paris/
- Magzoid Magazine — "Reference Festival Paris 2026 Highlights Art, Fashion and Music," October 2026 — https://magzoid.com/reference-festival-paris-2026-highlights-art-fashion-and-music/
- OVERSTANDARD — "Reference Festival Unlocks its Radical 'Freie Kunst' Edition to Disrupt Art Basel Paris," October 20, 2026 — https://overstandard.dk/reference-festival-unlocks-its-radical-freie-kunst-edition-to-disrupt-art-basel-paris/
Comments
Post a Comment