Into the Deep. An Undersea Adventure from Antiquity to the Present Day

The culmination of "Depths", a thematic cycle deployed across the entire network of musée national de la Marine, this major exhibition is presented in Paris from autumn 2026. It immerses visitors in the long history of underwater exploration and exploitation.

Through art, literature, science, and technology, it examines what has driven human societies to cross the boundaries of the visible world and venture beneath the surface of the ocean.

Beneath the surface, humans confront an extreme environment: pressure, darkness, cold, and isolation make the underwater world naturally inaccessible. Added to this physical barrier is a symbolic and cultural one: since Antiquity, the world beneath the waves has fed myths and stories populated with fantastical creatures. The exhibition thus examines this tension between fear and fascination: why seek to explore a seemingly hostile world?

Between imagination and reality, the full sweep of this great epic unfolds across more than 800 m², in a chronological journey from Antiquity to the present day that takes visitors around the globe. Nearly 280 works are on display - some of them exceptional and never before exhibited - drawn from the collections of major institutions, artists and lenders: biological specimens, archaeological objects, ethnographic collections, manuscripts, scientific instruments, diving suits, ship models, paintings, photographs, sculptures, decorative arts, contemporary artworks, and video installations.

Organised into four major chronological sections, the exhibition is conceived as an immersive journey through the rich history of human adventures beneath the seas. Within a scenography marked by a mysterious, hushed atmosphere that stirs the imagination and invites contemplation, visitors plunge down to the depths of the Cretaceous before rising back up through the centuries to the present day. Offering moments to pause and catch one's breath, four thematic cabinets punctuate the visit, exploring universal subjects: founding narratives, cosmogonies, and great initiatory and legendary tales; the octopus, a multifaceted tentacled creature; sunken worlds, between fantasised visions of lost cities and underwater habitat projects; and finally the mermaid, the quintessential mythical underwater figure.

From sea monsters to the works of Kuwaiti visual artist Monira Al Qadiri, from the explorations of French Navy Commander Cousteau to the advances of American oceanographer Marie Tharp, by way of the adventures of Aquaman, the films of pioneering filmmaker Jean Painlevé, and the feats of the ama, Japan's traditional free-diving fisherwomen - visitors are invited on an evocative dive into fascinating underwater worlds!

Louise Contant, Head of the Collections and Research Department at the National Maritime Museum

Clémence Laurent, Collections Curator at the National Maritime Museum

From underwater cartography in Brest to the invention of the first submersibles in Rochefort, via technical innovations in Port-Louis and deep-sea exploration in Toulon, visitors will discover different facets of underwater exploration. 

In Paris, a major exhibition will trace the history of deep-sea exploration across eras and oceans, bridging literary and artistic imagination, scientific discoveries and technological advances. 

This major cultural highlight of autumn 2026 will be enriched by an extensive programme (talks, encounters, screenings, special evening events, etc.), also presented across the museum’s regional sites. 

As part of this thematic cycle, the museum will undertake the restoration of a major piece from its collections—a flagship of French maritime heritage: the FNRS III bathyscaphe, a deep-sea exploration vessel located in the gardens of the Tour Royale in Toulon. 

22 May – 15 November 2026

The Depths season will open at the Citadel of Port-Louis with an exhibition dedicated to Henri Dupuy de Lôme (1816–1885), designer of the Gymnote, the first operational French submarine, and inventor of the armoured hull process.

Echoing the 400th anniversary of the French Navy, the exhibition will immerse visitors in the major innovations that transformed the French Navy in the second half of the 19th century and helped assert France’s naval power. 

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26 June 2026 – 7 March 2027

Presented at the museum in Brest, the second exhibition in the Depths cycle will explore the history of underwater cartography and how its challenges have evolved over time. 

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25 september 2026 - 02 january 2028

In Rochefort, Depths will focus on the origins of the first military submersible vessels, whose history is closely linked to the Charente naval arsenal. 

14 October 2026 – 04 april 2027

As the highlight of the network-wide programme, the museum in Paris will present a major exhibition in autumn 2026 dedicated to the great adventure of deep-sea exploration.

Through art, literature, science and technology—as well as popular culture—the exhibition will explore the motivations and initiatives that have pushed humanity to extend its reach beneath the surface of our planet. 

18 November 2026 – 27 June 2027

The final chapter of the Depths season, the exhibition in Toulon will highlight one of the cradles of deep-sea exploration: the Mediterranean coastline.