Presentation
The CNEAI is a contemporary art center dedicated to new forms of creation, artist publishing, and experimental practices. Conceived in 1993 and inaugurated in 1997 on the Île des Impressionnistes in Chatou, it has established itself as a key player on the French and international art scene, exploring from the outset immaterial circulations, hybrid editorial forms, reproducible works, and the relationships between art and society. Far from any rigid museum approach, the CNEAI = has always defended a conception of art as a mobile, collaborative, accessible, and situated gesture.
In 2026, the CNEAI = Art Center will move into the Cité des Arts in the eco-friendly river district of L'Île-Saint-Denis, transforming it into a third cultural space at the crossroads of multiple uses and practices. Named La Maison Fleuve, the building is designed as a place for cooperation, hospitality, artistic production, and encounters between residents, artists, and scientists. Six floors house professional workshops, spaces dedicated to amateur practices, and venues for exhibitions, exchanges, and socializing. La Maison Fleuve affirms an approach focused on inclusion, ecological transition, and archipelagic resonance.
Hospitality and experience are fundamental here. Artists’ and businesses’ workshops, neighbors’ production spaces, exhibition and meeting places: the art center becomes a “third place” based on complicity and cooperation. Programs are developed with increased mobility and spread out like an archipelago. From the island, via the river, a network of places is woven across the local, national, and international territory, like permanent or temporary trading posts, shared or pirate zones, places for experimentation or distancing.
La Maison Fleuve = Exhibitions & events
A program of exhibitions and events is designed around themes addressed by partners and the artistic and cultural project. Each year, we strengthen our ties with residents, as well as with cultural initiatives and audiences in this vibrant and multicultural urban area and department. Actions carried out: exhibitions at the cneai = premises, depending on the artistic and cultural project / support for partner projects / performance festivals and meetings, both outdoors and indoors / hanging of works in outdoor spaces depending on the projects.
Artist residencies / collectives
Each year, the cneai = programs an artist residency. This initiative allows us to host an author for an extended period of time, with the aim of providing them with an opportunity to devote themselves to research and production, as well as to participate in the programming of the venues. The guest artist takes a specific location in the heart of the Cité des Arts as their starting point and uses the Maison Fleuve as a base from which to take the time needed to develop new works. Throughout the season, the cneai = team works with the associate artist and local residents to create outreach activities and educational tools for partners and cultural, sociocultural, and popular education actors in the region.
Project & plans
Dedicated to free practices, the ground floor will be largely open to the outside and will feature a stage capable of hosting large-scale events.
The first two floors will contain workspaces for cultural actors involved in running the venue and wishing to develop their activities from L’Île-Saint-Denis: offices, music studios, art workshops…
On the third and fourth floors, a third place will be created with a terrace that can host all types of events (seminars, conferences, debates, parties…).
We are planning activities in two buildings, mainly the Cité des Arts and, more occasionally, the Base Nautique, with access to the Seine depending on the orientation. The project is therefore divided into autonomous platforms on the one hand and shared spaces for access to the public area on the other.
Specific resources
EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS - Artists are remunerated according to the remuneration scale drawn up by DCA, federation of art centers. Each exhibition produces one or more works, depending on the project.
RESIDENCE OF ASSOCIATED ARTISTS - One artist is invited each year, in accordance with the 2016 Ministry of Culture circular and in appcation of the code of ethics of Arts en résidence — Réseau national, for the implementation of best practices.
Partners & supporters
Address
1 bis rue Méchin / Place des Arts
93450 Ile-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis, Ile de France