Méditerranées - Épisode 1 : Inventions et représentations

Imaginaries of the Mediterranean are multiple. This project focuses on the images that museums and their collections have played a major role in constructing since the 18th century. Mucem is the only museum of society whose scientific project is fully devoted to the cultures of the Mediterranean. To mark its 10th anniversary, it invites us to discover the richness of its European and Mediterranean collections through a new permanent exhibition. From Greco-Roman antiquity to the present day, via the colonial period, it immerses us in the history of plural and imagined “Mediterraneans.” This permanent exhibition unfolds in several episodes, intended to renew its presentation through to 2030: “Mediterraneans” will be regularly enriched with new masterpieces from art history, new collection treasures and new rare pieces, recently acquired or loaned, opening up new paths and new horizons for embracing these Mediterraneans. Indeed, imaginaries of the Mediterranean are multiple, and they cannot all be shown in a single exhibition. “Mediterraneans” examines how these imaginaries were formed and spread, and in particular the role of museums, by exploring how art history and ethnology helped create “images” of the Mediterranean, all relative and all constructed. In fine-arts museums, it is the civilizations of the past, particularly those of antiquity, that are first highlighted and that construct a dreamed-of Mediterranean nourished by Homer’s Odyssey, Greek temples and accounts of Rome and Palmyra. Ethnographic museums, which emerged during the colonial period, focus on societies that are geographically or culturally “distant.” Sincere scientific and human interest in the Other exists alongside the interests and enterprises of the colonial powers. The distinction between fine-arts museums and ethnographic museums created boundaries between the objects they preserve and the disciplines that study them. Mucem now wishes to go beyond these boundaries and highlight the parallels and mutual influences between these two types of museum. Following this idea, “Mediterraneans” combines different historical museographic models, from the dense displays of fine-arts museums in the late 18th and 19th centuries to the various forms of presentation used throughout history by ethnographic museums. The exhibition presents more than 300 objects and documents, half of which come from the Mucem collections. Throughout the exhibition, contemporary artworks evoke today’s issues in the Mediterranean. They were created by artists Francis Alÿs, Ziad Antar, Hélène Bellenger, Nidhal Chamekh, Joseph Eid (AFP), Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Mouna Karray, Fatima Mazmouz, Selma and Sofiane Ouissi, Maria Varela, and Théo Mercier, who was invited to “infiltrate” the exhibition route. The loans come from around twenty institutions: musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, musée d’Orsay, musée du Louvre, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Médiathèque du patrimoine, École des beaux-arts de Paris, musée du château de Versailles, conseil général de Seine-Saint-Denis, musée d’Archéologie nationale, musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille, museon Arlaten, musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes, musée des Beaux-Arts d’Angers, musée des Beaux-Arts de Laval, musée Denys-Puech de Rodez, musée d’Art et d’Histoire de L’Isle-Adam, musée des moulages de l’université Lumière Lyon 2, Lugdunum Musée et théâtres romains, Ateliers d’art, moulages et chalcographie de la Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, musée Bénaki d’Athènes, musée de la Photographie de Thessalonique, musée de l’histoire du costume grec à Athènes, la galerie mor charpentier. General curator: Marie-Charlotte Calafat, chief heritage curator and scientific and collections director at Mucem Curators: Justine Bohbote, Raphaël Bories, Camille Faucourt, Enguerrand Lascols, Hélia Paukner, heritage curators at Mucem Scenographer: Pascal Rodriguez Graphic designer: Nicolas Journé, CL Design