Exposition “NOUS, Sorcière & Sauvage”

Following the “NOUS, sorcière et sauvage” cultural season, come discover the dedicated exhibition, an original experience bringing contemporary art, literature and heritage into dialogue. The wild man and the witch are two major figures of the collective imagination that art, literature and cinema have continually revisited. Both appear in the great myths, with the forest as their shared birthplace. Through metamorphosis after metamorphosis, throughout history they have inspired fear and fantasy, fascination and repulsion. In their own ways, both are symbols—and victims—of the old opposition between culture and nature that still shapes our relationship with the world today. In the manner of fairy tales or medieval literature, the exhibition invites visitors to cross the edge of the woods. In an immersive and enchanting journey dotted with stories and historical archives, the 130 works on display encourage us to understand how these disturbing, “repellent” figures could become reconciliatory figures and witnesses to humanity’s need to rewild and re-enchant itself. General curatorship: Céline du Chéné, producer at France Culture, notably of the documentary series Sorcières (2018), and author of the book Les sorcières, une histoire de femmes, (éditions France Culture - Michel Lafon, 2019). Associate curator: Laure Pabot, Bibliothèque départementale. Artists: Katia Bourdarel, Alexa Brunet, Odonchimeg Davaadorj, Edi Dubien, Christelle Enault, Charles Fréger, Delphine Jacquot, Sophie Lécuyer, Julien Salaud, Anaïs Tondeur. Collections: Museum d’Histoire naturelle de Marseille, Museum d’Histoire naturelle d’Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Arts décoratifs (Paris). Set design: Scénografia’ / Lighting and video creation: Fearless Soundtrack: Laurent Paulré. The exhibition route The hall: the call of the forest The hall is a call toward the forest. The silhouettes of Basque witches burned for their freedom and the half-human, half-animal archetypes of photographer Charles Fréger immediately plunge visitors into the worlds of the witch and the wild man. In the distance, Julien Salaud’s Cerfaure, a hybrid man-deer, invites us to cross the edge of the woods and lose our bearings. The gallery: from the dark forest where imaginary worlds dance to the necessary re-enchantment of the contemporary world In the “forest gallery,” we enter the world of night, which reveals the witch’s attributes: brooms, crows and white ladies. Moving from clearing to clearing, we learn what may have brought these two creatures together and condemned them: metamorphosis, impossible categorization, connections with the devil and fantasy. Edi Dubien’s moving drawings pay tribute to the figure of the wild child, whose stories haunted Europe from the Renaissance to the 19th century. At the end of the path: light. Odonchimeg Davaadorj’s poetic works, in which humans, animals and plants intertwine, evoke the necessary reconnection between living beings and the fragility of life. Anaïs Tondeur’s photographs shift our perspective and invite us to discover the world through a bee’s eyes. In a time of ecological crisis that raises the question of the planet’s survival, shouldn’t we become witches and wild again?