From May 29 to November 1, for the first time, the Pont du Gard will host a major exhibition dedicated to Robert Combas. An unprecedented confrontation between free figuration and the Roman aqueduct!
From May 29 to November 1, 2026, the Pont du Gard will host a large-scale exhibition dedicated to Robert Combas. Entitled “War and Peace,” it will bring together around sixty works in the museum space of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The announcement was made on Tuesday morning in the hall of the departmental council in Nîmes. Patrick Malavieille, vice-president in charge of culture, expressed his enthusiasm to Sébastien Arnaux, the site director. “It is a strong desire of the Department and the public cultural cooperation establishment: to make the Pont du Gard a place where something is always happening,” he admitted.
After a year marked by the 40th anniversary of the site’s UNESCO World Heritage listing in 2025, 2026 continues this momentum. “We want to continue to write the history of this prestigious monument and to do so in color,” stated the elected official, praising the “honor” of hosting a major figure in the contemporary art scene.
Born in 1957 in Lyon, Robert Combas grew up in Sète, where he developed a passion for drawing and painting. He quickly established himself in the early 1980s as one of the founders of the Figuration Libre movement, alongside Hervé Di Rosa, François Boisrond, and Rémi Blanchard. His universe, influenced by comics, rock music, popular cinema, and history, quickly spread across Europe, the United States, and Japan.
At the Pont du Gard, the exhibition will revolve around the artist’s favorite themes: ancient Greek and Roman antiquity, battles, heroic and mythological figures. The dialogue between the Roman architecture’s rigor and the colorful fervor of the Provencal painter promises to be unique. The highlight will be a monumental canvas of nearly nine meters dedicated to the Trojan War.
“We have been working on this exhibition since September, and not everything is finished yet,” confided Sébastien Arnaux.
The summer will extend this artistic encounter outdoors. From July 4 to August 30, every evening at 10:30 pm, a monumental video mapping will be projected onto the 275 meters of the aqueduct. Designed by Christophe Berthonneau and the Groupe F, the show will transform the stone into a giant screen. Colors, mythological figures, and motifs inspired by antiquity will inhabit the Roman structure in direct continuation of Robert Combas’s universe. The soundtrack has also been composed from the creations of the group Les Sans Pattes, of which the Provencal artist is a member.
In addition to the exhibition and the nightly spectacle, the site will offer an expanded summer program: music aperitifs on Mondays from July 13 to August 17, summer balls on Tuesdays from July 14 to August 18, and traditional wine evenings on Wednesdays from July 15 to August 19, in partnership with the IGP Coteaux du Pont du Gard wine syndicate.
