Léger et La Création du Monde on Show in Biot this Summer

Starting this June, an exhibition at the Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot will focus on an important 20th-century ballet, La Création du Monde 

The Creation of the World was first performed on 25 October, 1923, by the Ballets Suédois. Several well-known artists worked on it: dancer Jean Börlin (1893-1930), writer Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), and painter Fernand Léger (1881-1955), who designed the sets and costumes.

This was the second time Léger worked with the Ballets Suédois, after an earlier show in 1922. The company was based in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées from 1920, and run by the collector Rolf de Maré.

For this original ballet, in both style and choreography, Blaise Cendrars drew on African myths to portray the creation of the world, encompassing plant and animal life as well as humanity.

^{Video via Flux Laboratory on Vimeo}

Léger wasn’t familiar with these stories at first, but he became very interested and wanted to create what he saw as a unique and defining ballet inspired by African culture.

The ballet was modern for its time as it combined different art forms – painting, music, dance, and poetry – into one piece.

The exhibition Léger et La Création du monde will show this by displaying an exceptional and previously unseen loan of preparatory drawings from the rich collection of the Dance Museum in Stockholm.

^{Photos: Fernand Léger. Costume de Nissim et Gnoul pour le ballet La Création du monde, re-construit par les chorégraphes Millicent Hodson et Kenneth Archer pour le Grand Théâtre de Genève, première présentée le 15 décembre 2000, Fluxum Foundation © Yorgis Yerolymbos}

---

It will also feature bright, geometric costumes. These were recreated in 2000 for a performance in Geneva by choreographers Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer, helping bring the ballet’s legacy to life.

The exhibition Léger et La Création du monde runs from 13 June to 12 October 2026. It is curated by Anne Dopffer, Director of the musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes, and Julie Guttierez, Chief Curator of Heritage at the musée national Fernand Léger.

^{Courtesy Musée national Fernand Léger / Musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes}

VISITOR INFORMATION

Admission

• Full price: €10
• Reduced price: €8
• Group rate (10 or more people): €9 per person

Opening Hours

Open every day except Tuesdays, January 1st, May 1st, and December 25th.

May to October: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Midday closures:

• May – 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm: every day except May 8th, 13th, 14th, 18th, and May 20th to 25th (excluding Tuesdays).
• June – 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm: every day except June 13th, 16th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and June 24th to 29th (excluding Tuesdays).

Accessibility

The Fernand Léger National Museum is fully accessible to people with reduced mobility.

VENUE DETAILS

Musée National Fernand Léger
255 Chemin du Val de Pôme
06410 Biot

Tel: +33 (0)4 93 53 87 20

PHOTO CREDITS

• Lead image by Bengt Oberger – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link
• All other images courtesy Musée National Fernand Léger / Musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes and as credited
• Video as credited