The Musée de l’Image in Épinal is offering a new temporary exhibition entitled « Icônes, les images fantasmées ». This questions the process of iconization, its evolution and its representation through the ages, from popular engravings to social networks.
What connects a supposed portrait of Christ to an image of Che Guevara? Why does the figure of Marilyn Monroe persist in the universal imagination sixty years after her death? From Joan of Arc to Brigitte Bardot, from Napoleon to the Beatles and Maradona, how is an icon created?
Ideal and adored figures, whose image has entered posterity, icons fascinate as much as they question us about our relationship to these representations and their quasi-religious dimension. The Musée de l’Image examines this phenomenon through a selection of 150 pieces bringing together popular imagery, photographs, illustrated magazines and newspapers and other derivative products. The exhibition traces the evolution of the representation of icons through the ages through the prism of great figures, religious, military, artistic or sporting.
It also takes a look at current society and what can allow a public figure to access the pantheon of icons these days. In the all-digital era and media omnipresence, what are the conditions that allow a character to enter the category of the universal, to transcend borders and cultures, language barriers and age groups to become immortal?
Curators
François Cheval, independent curator, artistic director of the Mougins Photography Center
Christelle Rochette, director of the Musée de l’Image
Icônes, les images fantasmées
From February 24 to September 22, 2024
Musée de l’Image | Ville d’Épinal
42, quai de Dogneville
88000 Épinal
www.museedelimage.fr
