A gathering of snow globe enthusiasts
Mohamed El Khatib, guest artist
Conference
In this scientific and entertaining evening, Mohamed El Khatib brings together the key players who bring the snow globe to life.
Collectors, enthusiasts and curators talk to us about this object that populates our imaginations, and of which the “Populaire?” exhibition presents some fine specimens.
With a talk by Jérôme Montchal, art historian and international snow globe specialist.
Find out more about the snow globe...
The snow globe, and all the clichés that come with it, is above all an object of the eye. That which the lucky owner casts on it – and that which the average person casts on its owner. This seemingly playful little object has generated a variety of uses, depending on the era: paperweight, toy, beloved souvenir, old-fashioned, industrial, bobo or kitsch, quasi-mystical miniature world, popular art, collector’s item, creative medium…
Its true historical origin is debated – it seems to date back to the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. But beyond a controversial birth certificate, the snow globe has seen a number of socially contradictory uses throughout its history, making it a complex object. And it’s the history of this object, for which we have a certain tenderness, that we’re going to explore.
The history of art plays a major role in separating art from secular domains by consecrating it. The admiring gaze that art arouses, or even demands, is not unconnected with the relations of domination that run through our society. The snow globe – the epitome of bad taste for some – may be considered a kitschy, stupid object, but it is paradoxically this condition that makes it sus- ceptible of becoming an objet d’art.
An interest in this despised phenomenon of popular culture enables us to question the processes by which cultural institutions legitimize an object. The snow globe allows us to question the acts of “qualification” and “belief” which, through operations of aesthetic “blessing” and cultural “sacrament”, enable an ordinary object to become an art object.
(From the press kit for Boule à neige, a performance by Patrick Boucheron and Mohamed El Khatib to be presented at Mucem in 2021).
Conference
In this scientific and entertaining evening, Mohamed El Khatib brings together the key players who bring the snow globe to life.
Collectors, enthusiasts and curators talk to us about this object that populates our imaginations, and of which the “Populaire?” exhibition presents some fine specimens.
With a talk by Jérôme Montchal, art historian and international snow globe specialist.
Find out more about the snow globe...
The snow globe, and all the clichés that come with it, is above all an object of the eye. That which the lucky owner casts on it – and that which the average person casts on its owner. This seemingly playful little object has generated a variety of uses, depending on the era: paperweight, toy, beloved souvenir, old-fashioned, industrial, bobo or kitsch, quasi-mystical miniature world, popular art, collector’s item, creative medium…
Its true historical origin is debated – it seems to date back to the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. But beyond a controversial birth certificate, the snow globe has seen a number of socially contradictory uses throughout its history, making it a complex object. And it’s the history of this object, for which we have a certain tenderness, that we’re going to explore.
The history of art plays a major role in separating art from secular domains by consecrating it. The admiring gaze that art arouses, or even demands, is not unconnected with the relations of domination that run through our society. The snow globe – the epitome of bad taste for some – may be considered a kitschy, stupid object, but it is paradoxically this condition that makes it sus- ceptible of becoming an objet d’art.
An interest in this despised phenomenon of popular culture enables us to question the processes by which cultural institutions legitimize an object. The snow globe allows us to question the acts of “qualification” and “belief” which, through operations of aesthetic “blessing” and cultural “sacrament”, enable an ordinary object to become an art object.
(From the press kit for Boule à neige, a performance by Patrick Boucheron and Mohamed El Khatib to be presented at Mucem in 2021).