Hélia Paukner will become the director of macLYON, the Lyon museum of contemporary art, and the artistic director of the Lyon Biennale. She succeeds Isabelle Bertolotti, who has held both positions since 2018.

Paukner arrives from the Mucem, the national museum of cultural anthropology in Marseille, where she has served as curator and head of contemporary art since 2019. The appointment also marks a return to Lyon for Paukner, who previously worked as a research assistant to the director at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

In her new role, Paukner will oversee the appointment of the curator for each edition of the art biennale, the eighteenth edition of which is currently open through 13 December, curated by Catherine Nichols. She will also coordinate the staging of the Lyon Dance Biennale, which takes place in alternate years to the art event.

The leadership change lands at a significant moment for the institution, as the Lyon Biennale navigates a crowded European biennial calendar and macLYON positions itself within a shifting French cultural landscape. The dual directorship gives Paukner unusual leverage over Lyon's contemporary art agenda, combining museum programming, commissioning and the biennial cycle in a single portfolio. Her path back to Lyon is itself a through-line: she began in museum work as a research assistant to the director at the city's fine-arts museum, and returns after years shaping contemporary art at a national institution in Marseille. Which curators she entrusts with future editions of the art biennale, and how she positions macLYON within a French cultural landscape under financial and political strain, will be closely watched by the sector.