Celebrating the fifth anniversary since Museum of Art Pudong's inauguration, Jean Nouvel: Without the Artist, Architecture Disappears officially opens on June 27, 2026. It is the largest solo exhibition of the world-renowned architect Jean Nouvel to date, featuring the greatest number of projects designed by him. Through various media including film, architecture model, archive, and a studio space reconstruction, the exhibition paints a comprehensive picture of Jean Nouvel's extraordinary achievements across a career spanning more than fifty years.

Born in Fumel, France in 1945, Jean Nouvel is one of the most legendary figures in contemporary architecture. His architectural philosophy is characterized by a strong sense of spacial and cultural context, which endows each of his works with an irreplaceable originality. Throughout his career, Jean Nouvel has won virtually every prestigious international architecture award, including the highest honor often referred to as the "Nobel Prize" of architecture—the Pritzker Architecture Prize. His works span the globe, covering cultural institutions, commercial buildings, and public spaces. 

Museum of Art Pudong is a cultural landmark that Jean Nouvel designed for Shanghai. The building's simple, Suprematist geometric lines, its flexible and spacious exhibition halls, its masterful orchestration of natural light, and its profound dialogue with the Lujiazui skyline as well as the Huangpu River landscape all make this "white box" a complete work of art in itself. The exhibition marks the first time that Jean Nouvel unveils an exhibition within a museum of his own creation.

The exhibition features four representative cultural projects designed by Jean Nouvel, including models and archival materials: the Philharmonie de Paris, the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Art Pudong, and the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain—Palais-Royal. For the first time ever, over 100 industrial design projects from Nouvel's career are presented in a single exhibition, offering visitors an in-depth understanding of his oeuvre. Numerous sizable moving images reveal the sensory dimension of his architecture; large-scale screens liberate architecture from drawings and models, providing visitors with an immersive viewing experience. Additionally, a reconstruction of Ateliers Jean Nouvel's studio workspace has been specially created within the exhibition, where 16 computer stations allow each visitor to explore the firm's archives of more than 400 architectural projects and over 100 design works. These valuable archives include both iconic completed projects as well as unrealized concepts and proposals.

The exhibition is produced by Shanghai Lujiazui East Bund Culture Development Co.,Ltd., organised by the Museum of Art Pudong and in partnership with Ateliers Jean Nouvel. The exhibition is supported by the Consulate General of France in Shanghai and Institut français de Chine. It has been included in the 2026 edition of the Croisements Festival.