Since January 2025, the Bpi has been ‘outside the walls’

In anticipation of the Bpi’s closure pending its relocation to the Lumière (opening to the public at noon on August 25), part of the Bpi’s programming has been installed “outside the walls” since January 2025.

La cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi was the first to set up its programming in a partner venue: since January 2025, the Forum des images, in the Forum des Halles (75001). A venue for screenings, events and cultural activities, the Forum des images has 3 cinemas with 100, 300 and 500 seats, adapted for people with reduced mobility and equipped for all film formats. La cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi programs its cycle screenings and regular evening events here.
Find out more about screenings up to July 13, and then check out the new season program in our calendar!

Daytime screenings, including the free Yeux doc à midi on Fridays, are scheduled at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (see below).

Another cinema venue from September 23, 2025, as part of the Centre Pompidou’s Constellation program while the building is closed for renovation: the mk2 Bibliothèque cinema in Paris, home to the Centre Pompidou cinemas and the cinémathèque du documentaire à la Bpi. Renamed and decked out in the Centre’s colors, the current entrance at the heart of the François-Mitterrand Bibliothèque nationale de France building becomes mk2 Bibliothèque × Centre Pompidou. Its four rooms and atrium will host retrospectives, cycles, festivals, previews, regular events, meetings and masterclasses designed by the Centre Pompidou and the Cinémathèque du documentaire by the Bpi.

For meetings and conferences, the Bpi can also count on the Bibliothèques de la Ville de Paris, a network of nearly 75 establishments. Several projects will be shared from 2025 onwards, starting with the Nuits de la lecture 2025, during which the Bpi will be holding workshops at the Forney library (4th arrondissement). This event launched the multi-year partnership with the libraries of the City of Paris, in collaboration with Bibliocité. The launch was followed in March 2025 by the Bpi’s participation in the 1st edition of En Quête d’info, the media decoding festival, via the Profession reporter cycle.

For literature, head for the Gaîté Lyrique (75003). Feminism and gender, the environment, current affairs, technology and society… There are many “thematic bridges” between the cultural programming of the Gaîté Lyrique and that of the Bpi! In the heart of Paris, the spaces of this former Parisian temple of operetta will host a Bpi conference every last Wednesday of the month.
However, due to the occupation of the premises by a group of young people without accommodation, the meeting of the “Les rendez-vous d’Effractions” cycle with writer Philippe Jaenada scheduled for January 29, “Faits divers, fait littéraire?” has had to be rescheduled in the Bpi’s premises (Atelier 1, level 2).
As for the Effractions festival of contemporary literature, scheduled to take place there from February 12 to 16, it has also been reprogrammed in other Parisian cultural venues: Center Wallonie-Bruxelles, Centre Pompidou, médiathèque Françoise-Sagan…

Another resource during the Bpi’s relocation is the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles Paris, which promotes the cultural creation of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Located just across the street from the Centre Pompidou, the CWB is a long-standing partner of the Bpi (cycle and performances during the Printemps de la poésie, cycles built in common, partnership during the Effractions festival…). In view of its cultural programming, and the proximity of its themes and issues to those of the meetings offered by the Bpi, the CWB is a natural choice as an effective relay for the library’s “Parole” programming, and will also host daytime cinema screenings, notably the free Friday screenings Les yeux doc à midi) since January 10 as part of the “Voyage, voyages” programming.
Now through to June 27: Vertiges du monde

The Cinéma du réel festival, for its 47th edition (March 22-29, 2025), was held in several Left Bank cinemas – L’Arlequin, Reflet Médicis, Saint-André-des-Arts and Christine Cinéma Club, as well as at the Théâtre de l’Alliance française – and will continue for its next edition, from March 21 to 28, 2026.

In 2025, during the closure of the Bpi, mediations were organized in several locations near the Lumière, as a link between the closure and the reopening of the Bpi at the end of August:

• workshops on employment and working life at Cité des métiers
• Initiation and discovery of digital culture and permanent Déclics informatiques workshop at the Université Ouverte
• Bons plans à Paris workshop at Centre Paris Anim’ Bessie Smith
  Next and last meeting: Thursday, July 17 at 3:30 pm
• conversation workshops in english, spanish and italian at the Coffee shop Kawaa at the Lumière
  Next and last dates:
  → English conversation workshops – Thursdays July 3 and 10 at 5:30pm and 6:30pm
• workshops in French as a foreign language (FLE) at the Ground Control
  Next and last appointment :
  → FLE theater workshop – Wednesday, July 16 at 7pm

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