Camille Pradon, Détail de Nocturnes, série de dix dessins, 2020, poussière de charbon.
From the Moon to the Morning Star, from the constellation of the Great Bear to Saturn’s rings, the celestial vault and the stars that inhabit it have long inspired immense fascination.
The exhibition “Reading the Sky” explores how the night sky has been perceived around the Mediterranean, as seen from Earth. From the earliest recordings of the ancient Mesopotamian heavens to the vogue of contemporary astrology, passing through medieval Arab-Muslim astronomy and the Galilean revolution, the societies of the Mediterranean basin have turned to the stars to locate themselves within the cosmos and to organize life on Earth. Knowledge and beliefs circulated between the shores, forming a shared culture of the sky that continues to shape our modern relationship with the stars.
Through a dialogue between art and science, the exhibition seeks to question our present-day connection to the starry sky. Since Antiquity, the observation of the regular movements of celestial bodies has served to structure daily life — for instance, by aiding navigation or establishing calendars. Celestial phenomena have also been interpreted as signs influencing human existence: the phases of the Moon, the passage of comets, the movements of planets across constellations, and so on. This link between the macrocosm and the microcosm has played a role in the governance of states and the study of individual behavior, with astronomy and astrology long operating hand in hand.
While modern astronomy has helped to challenge many of these beliefs, popular culture continues to maintain an intimate bond with the stars, seeing the sky as a canvas for projecting our deepest questions. Today, as the stars fade beneath the light pollution of our cities, we still look up in search of constellations, contemplate the beauty of the starry night, and reflect through it on our relationship with the environment.
The artist Camille Pradon presents a series of ten drawings, Nocturnes, as part of the exhibition.
Artists: Etel Adnan, Juliette Agnel, Abdelkader Benchamma, Vanessa del Campo, Clément Cogitore, Thierry Cohen, Caroline Corbasson, Mohssin Harraki, Jean Mallard, Bernard Moninot, Sara Ouhaddou (produced by the Mucem), Matthieu Pernot, Camille Pradon, Anaïs Tondeur, Armelle Tulunda, Fabienne Verdier.
Curators:
Juliette Bessette, art historian, University of Lausanne
Enguerrand Lascols, senior curator, Mucem
Scientific direction: Frédérique Aït-Touati, historian of science and ideas (CNRS, CRAL), Isabel Bonora Andujar, heritage curator, Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities (Louvre Museum), Khalid Chakor-Alami, curator of Arabic and Persian manuscripts (Bibliothèque nationale de France), Emmanuel Hugot, astrophysicist (Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, CNES, Laboratory of Astrophysics of Marseille)
