After a record success for “Cathares”, what will be the next big exhibition in Toulouse?

A popular success! The “Cathars” exhibition, which closed its doors on Sunday January 5, 2025, attracted in nine months 210,704 visitorsannounces the Toulouse town hall.

Attendance records for the Cathars exhibition in Toulouse

Organized at the Saint-Raymond museum, Toulouse archeology museum, and at the Couvent des Jacobins, this unique exhibition therefore reached “attendance records” : 90,874 visitors went to the Saint-Raymond museum to visit this exhibition and 119,830 visitors to the Jacobins.

“This success of visitors confirmed the general public’s interest in the Cathars, who have become an object of tourism and popular culture, but also their interest in the scientific research carried out by this exhibition which revisited and rethought the very concept of Catharism, thus offering a new narration to visitors,” underlines the Toulouse town hall.

The Cathars exhibition therefore did better, in terms of attendance, than the exhibitions devoted to recent years Niki de Saint-Phalle (163,000 visitors), Giacometti (130,000 visitors) or Picasso and exile (149,000 visitors).

The exhibition dedicated to Roy Lichtenstein postponed to 2026

What will be the next major exhibition of 2025 in Toulouse? Initially, it was to be dedicated to a great Pop-Art figure, Roy Lichtenstein.

An exhibition was to take place from December 2025 at the Musée des Abattoirs. But this was ultimately postponed for a year. As reported Here Occitanie in November, the recent death of the artist’s widow led the Lichtenstein Foundation to suspend loans of works for a year to museums and institutions.

The exhibition should therefore take place in December 2026 !

Carte blanche to Jean-Charles de Castelbajac

Following this postponement, the Toulouse town hall announces a new major exhibition, which this time will be dedicated to a major fashion figure: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. This new exhibition will take place at the Abattoirs museum from December 2025.

According to our information, it will be an exhibition in the form of carte blanche to the famous stylist, creator and visual artist, who recently made a name for himself during the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris : he was in fact chosen by the diocese of Paris to imagine the (very colorful!) clothes worn by the officiants during the reopening ceremony of the cathedral.

Carte blanche, as the rapper Oli was able to benefit from to create his “imaginary museum”, which, since its opening in December, has seen a huge popular success ! This exhibition is also visible until May 2025.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.