The Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MuCEM) in Marseille is presenting “Manger les images,” an exhibition about iconophagy: the act of ingesting an image or an object that represents or symbolizes a person or idea. The display includes paintings, sculptures, films, amulets and biscuits, among other items, both religious and secular, old and contemporary.
The exhibition draws on “Les Iconophages. Une histoire de l’ingestion des images,” a 2021 book by art historian Jérémie Koering, who co-curated the show with MuCEM curator Raphaël Bories. The exhibition features 430 works and objects, 250 of them from MuCEM’s collections. These include items from the former National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions in Paris, which closed in 2005 and whose collections moved to Marseille.
The exhibition uses three chapters, each with its own title and focus. Its central idea includes familiar religious practices: in Catholicism, for example, the communion wafer symbolizes the body of Christ, making communion a form of iconophagy. The practice is widespread, although it has received relatively little study as a subject in its own right.
Sources: Le Monde Culture.