The Zigzag Architecture Festival

From 26 September to 11 October 2026, the Zigzag Festival invites you to discover, understand and participate in the transformations of a region in flux: the Seine Valley. Taking a thoughtful approach, through guided tours, walking routes, hikes, installations and even communal meals, the festival highlights different ways of living and building. It shifts our perspective, sparks curiosity, helps us to engage more fully with our living spaces and encourages us to question them.

Open-air exhibitions

Large-scale photographic installations are popping up on both sides of the Seine, from Rouen to Grand-Quevilly and Sotteville. These exhibitions are set up in the heart of the city, right at the heart of residents’ daily lives. At a time when environmental issues are becoming increasingly pressing, images serve as a revelation: they make visible what we might otherwise overlook and reflect our reality. This exhibition focuses on the relationships between people, places and the natural world, and features several free, open-air exhibitions in Rouen, Grand-Quevilly and Sotteville-lès-Rouen.

In Rouen, Left Bank:

• Juliette Pavy’s exhibition: “On Thin Ice”
  In Greenland, the Inuit are facing climate and geopolitical upheavals.

• Maxime Riché’s exhibition: “Paradise”
  Following the massive wildfires that ravaged California, the exhibition documents the reconstruction of a town and questions our ability to live in increasingly vulnerable areas.

In Grand-Quevilly:

• Antoine Boureau’s exhibition: “Nenets, Family Life”
  In northern Russia, a Nenets family maintains a nomadic way of life deeply rooted in the tundra, now under threat from industrial exploitation and climate change.

In Sotteville-lès-Rouen:

• Axelle de Russé’s exhibition: “Polar Attractions”
  From the Arctic to Patagonia, a photographic exploration of the polar regions, which bear unique witness to the climate changes currently taking place.

From 26 September to 31 December, the Maison de l’Architecture de Normandie – the Forum is hosting this exhibition, which is free to visit.

In Normandy, climate change is already reshaping our landscapes. Rising temperatures, irregular rainfall, more frequent extreme weather events and coastal erosion: these changes are already underway. Drawing on the work of the Normandy IPCC, this exhibition sheds light on these developments and showcases initiatives already underway on the ground. It invites everyone to understand the changes taking place, to discuss the choices ahead and to imagine together the regions of tomorrow.

Every year, the ZIGZAG Festival offers a sensory and communal journey through the Seine Valley, featuring architectural discoveries, artistic walks, scenic hikes, poetic installations, sound performances, urban boat trips and community gatherings. For its 8th edition, it is staging more than 30 free events across 17 partner local authorities, from Rouen to Le Havre, via the Eure and Hauts-de-Seine departments. Guided by the theme ‘Transformations at eye level’, ZIGZAG invites everyone to explore landscapes, cities and the river in a new light, at the crossroads of art, architecture and the local area.

All events are free and open to everyone, unless otherwise stated.

Places are limited for each event (excluding permanent events with free admission) and registration is compulsory and available exclusively online at festivalzigzag.fr

Enquiries: 02 35 03 40 31 and [email protected]