The vOilah! France Singapore Festival 2026 is in full swing through June, celebrating the best of French creativity while spotlighting collaborations between French and Singaporean artists. From immersive exhibitions to chamber music concerts and contemporary dance, there is plenty still to catch before the curtain comes down. Here are seven must-see highlights worth putting in your diary.
1. Silent Echoes
28 May – 7 June 2026 | Instinc Gallery | Free admission
Inspired by akiya — abandoned houses in Hakodate, Japan — Silent Echoes is a series of risograph prints by French-Polish artist Alexandre Levi. The works focus on traces of departure: bandaged letterboxes, taped windows, and torn curtains, rendered in vivid monochromes of violet, aqua, green, and neon pink. More than studies of ruin, the series reflects on continuity, memory, and the quiet endurance of urban and social change. Best of all, it is free to visit.
2. In Other Words
29 May 2026, 7:30pm | Le Théâtre, Alliance Française de Singapour | Free admission
Artist aryel presents a multidisciplinary creation reimagining French and Western musical heritage, weaving together the worlds of Fauré, Satie, Debussy, and Chopin into a bold, atemporal sonic landscape. Voices, guitar, violin, and piano intertwine with contemporary dance and experimental projections for a sensory journey where past and present dissolve. Free admission makes this one of the best-value nights out this May.
3. Qin Li-Wei Plays Shostakovich • Mahler 7
29 May 2026, 7:30pm | Esplanade Concert Hall | Tickets from $18 (SG Culture Pass eligible)
The Orchestra of the Music Makers presents an evening of powerful 20th-century repertoire. World-renowned cellist Qin Li-Wei, laureate of the Tchaikovsky and Naumburg competitions, performs Shostakovich’s deeply personal Cello Concerto No. 1, followed by Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 7 “Song of the Night” under conductor Alexandre Bloch, former Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lille. A formidable programme at an accessible price point.
4. Planet [wanderer], by Damien Jalet & Kohei Nawa
29–30 May 2026, 8pm | Esplanade Theatre | Tickets from $48 | Advisory 16, Nudity
Part of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), Planet [wanderer] is a collaboration between French-Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet — a collaborator of Madonna, Thom Yorke, and Marina Abramović — and Japanese visual artist and scenographer Kohei Nawa. Eight dancers confront shifting materials and textures in a visceral meditation on the bond between people and planet. Strange, bewitching, and not to be missed.
5. BALLET: The Making of an Étoile
29 May – 15 August 2026, 9am–7:30pm | La Galerie, Alliance Française de Singapour | Free admission
What does it take to become an étoile? This immersive exhibition steps behind the curtain of the Paris Opera Ballet to reveal the demanding journey through which dancers are shaped and refined. Structured as a narrative progression, it explores the opera house as a unique ecosystem — from rehearsal studios to backstage corridors — where countless hours of unseen work converge into luminous grace on stage. Running till August, this is one you can revisit leisurely.
6. Quatuor Modigliani: 1826 Beethoven’s Penultimate Year
6 June 2026, 5pm / 7pm / 9pm | Esplanade Recital Studio | Tickets from $42
In 1826, Beethoven completed some of his greatest string quartets — late-period masterpieces renowned for their profound emotional depth and innovative structures. Two centuries later, the Paris-based Quatuor Modigliani — one of today’s most sought-after quartets — revisits these cornerstones of chamber music through a triptych of evening concerts. The quartet plays on four outstanding Italian instruments dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.
7. Crosscurrents: Masterpieces of Indian, Iranian & Ottoman Art from the Musée du Louvre
19 June 2026 – 24 January 2027 | Asian Civilisations Museum
For the first time in Southeast Asia, close to 100 masterpieces of Islamic art from the Musée du Louvre come to the Asian Civilisations Museum. Spanning the 16th to 18th centuries, the collection draws from three Islamic empires — Mughal India, Safavid Iran, and the Ottoman Empire — displayed alongside selected works from ACM’s own collection. Opening in mid-June, it will be worth planning a dedicated visit.
For the full festival programme, visit the vOilah! website. The festival runs till 20 June 2026.
