Hervé Di Rosa at the Mucem. A Family Resemblance

This art book, developed in close collaboration between the museum’s curators and editorial team, invites readers to delve into the Mucem’s collections and interpret them in a new light. To highlight the collection’s diversity, three hundred selected items will be presented. Three hundred objects, works of art, or documents—sometimes very distant from one another chronologically and in terms of type—but which share thematic or visual similarities. Their arrangement throughout the book and their juxtaposition on each spread sometimes give rise to playful moments, but above all, to narratives. And each time, they pose questions to the reader: What are their uses? What do they represent? What are they made of? What is a “rat-de-cave”? A “diable de Bessans”? Could it be that an oven and a loft vent share similar shapes? What are a fake beard, an ad for fly swatters, a crystal ball, and a miniature coffin doing in a museum?

Comparisons between objects offer clues; captions serve as keys. It is up to the reader to, in turn, unravel the narrative threads woven from these chain-like associations. For our most curious readers, we’ll reveal that the book’s structure was inspired by an amusing literary device called “concatenaion .” Concatenation is a series of anadiploses—in other words, “a repetition”—where the last word of one sentence is used as the first word of the next. So as not to scare off other readers, we’ll also tell them that it’s simpler than it seems: it’s the same principle as the nursery rhyme “Three Little Kittens.”

Published by Mucem / Jardin Majorelle Foundation
Paperback
160 pages
17 x 21 cm
ISBN 979-10-92708-28-8

Salima Naji and Alexis Sornin

Meriem Berrada, Marc Breviglieri, Marie-Charlotte Calafat, David Goeury, Mohamed Mouskite, Myriem Naji, Salima Naji, Ahmed Skounti, and Alexis Sornin.

In Amazigh culture, any act of adornment—whether it involves decorating the body, clothing, or a home—reflects a concern for belonging, protection, and connection to the cycle of life. These acts are never trivial: they embody a collective memory, a symbolic or magical filter that connects the body, the home, and the community.
Since the earliest myths, the matrix from which the birth of Amazigh culture is conceived has been feminine.
Tattoos, jewelry, ceramics, and textiles all follow the same grammar of forms and symbols. Whether aesthetic, therapeutic, or apotropaic, these motifs also serve as markers of social and gender identity.

This book explores these protective circles—these visible and invisible thresholds—through the objects, surfaces, and narratives in which they take shape. It highlights the often female-led craft traditions—from weaving to practices tied to lunar cycles—while paying tribute to male artisans, such as goldsmiths. Drawing on research and contemporary perspectives, it examines the concept of “Berber permanence,” the dynamics of transmission within the Amazigh diaspora, and the cultural appropriations to which this “matrimoine”/heritage is sometimes subject today.

224 pages
, 22 x 28 cm, paperback
Co-published by Mucem and RMN
In French
ISBN: 9782711881598
39 euros

Juliette Bessette and Enguerrand Lascols

Frédérique Aït-Touati, Florian Audureau, Isabel Bonora-Andujar, Anna Caiozzo, Khalid Chakor-Alami, Ahmed Djebbar, Arnaud Esquerre, Sabine Guermouche, Emmanuel Hugot, Eric Lagadec, Michel Marcelin, Sara Ouhaddou, Giorgio Strano, Marine Vazzoler

The richly illustrated exhibition catalog features six previously unpublished essays addressing a variety of themes, ranging from the circulation of astronomical knowledge in the Mediterranean basin to contemporary practices in astrology. It also features four interviews that explore current issues, particularly our relationship with the starry sky in the context of environmental upheavals, for example with science historian Aït-Touati and astrophysicist Éric Lagadec. Finally, detailed descriptions of the major works featured in the exhibition round out this collection.

Structured in two parts, like the exhibition, the catalog aims to provide an overview of the history of museum collections of antiquities and Mediterranean ethnography, delving deeper into certain exemplary cases through contributions from specialized art historians. This provides a better understanding of the dissemination—and political appropriation—of ancient models, and traces the footsteps of ethnographers in the field… Exclusive interviews with the contemporary artists participating in this project were also conducted.

En écho à la liberté et la fantaisie de cette exposition-spectacle, le catalogue prend la forme d’un livre-objet plein de surprises : notre déambulation de lecteur passe, grâce à des changements de formats de papier, d’un univers à un autre, tandis que l’imaginaire de Macha Makeïeff s’invite sans cesse dans le dialogue entre les objets et les œuvres. Mais la dimension scientifique n’en est pas pour autant exclue, puisque cinq essais, sur des sujets parfois inédits, nourrissent cette expérience sensible : ils sont signés de Pascal Jacob et Marika Maymard, les plus grands spécialistes français de l’histoire du cirque, Sébastien Delmer, philosophe hanté par la question du courage et du panache, Frédéric Saumade, spécialiste des rites animaliers, ou encore Stéphane Goudet, historien du cinéma. Le monde du spectacle vivant prend lui aussi la parole à travers diverses cartes blanches données par Macha Makeïeff à un comédien, un metteur en scène ou encore un artiste de la lumière…