ARTISTS
Shared Holy Places
How can a place be both sacred and shared? In common understanding, a sanctuary is usually associated with a single faith. Yet it is not uncommon for worshippers to cross doctrinal boundaries and pray in the holy place of another religion, in veneration of a shared sacred figure.
The show brings together major works from French, Italian, and Vatican collections placed in dialogue with contemporary creations. From Gentile da Fabriano to Marc Chagall, via Le Corbusier, it seeks to shed light鈥攖hrough works of art鈥攐n a sometimes little-known yet very present religious phenomenon in the Mediterranean: sanctuaries shared by worshippers of different religions.
Each to their own God, scriptures, saints. However, since their origins, ritual practices, founding narratives, tutelary figures, and sacred spaces have intertwined among the three great monotheistic religions鈥擩udaism, Christianity, and Islam. The exhibition Shared Sacred Sites explores unique cases where different religious practices and communities intersect and coexist. Often overlooked in the West, this phenomenon reveals the historical, cultural, spiritual, and artistic interactions that have shaped these religions as well as the societies of the Mediterranean basin.
Ten years after it was first presented at Mucem in Marseille (29 April 鈥� 31 August 2015) and an international tour, the exhibition Shared Sacred Sites comes to Villa Medici in a new form, with special loans from the Vatican Museums, the Louvre, Mucem 鈥� the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, the MAXXI and the Museo ebraico di Roma. The exhibition invites visitors on a journey through various landscapes鈥攃ities, seas, gardens, caves, and mountains鈥攃onducive to the sharing of the sacred. It highlights intertwined histories and shared heritages, mapping out a spiritual geography where traditions, dialogue, and artistic creation converge.
The exhibition Shared Sacred Sites was designed and co-produced by the French Academy in Rome 鈥� Villa Medici, the Mucem and the French Embassy to the Holy See 鈥� Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, based on an original exhibition by Mucem. The exhibition has benefited from the expert advice of the Vatican Museums and the Museo ebraico di Roma.
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How can a place be both sacred and shared? In common understanding, a sanctuary is usually associated with a single faith. Yet it is not uncommon for worshippers to cross doctrinal boundaries and pray in the holy place of another religion, in veneration of a shared sacred figure.
The show brings together major works from French, Italian, and Vatican collections placed in dialogue with contemporary creations. From Gentile da Fabriano to Marc Chagall, via Le Corbusier, it seeks to shed light鈥攖hrough works of art鈥攐n a sometimes little-known yet very present religious phenomenon in the Mediterranean: sanctuaries shared by worshippers of different religions.
Each to their own God, scriptures, saints. However, since their origins, ritual practices, founding narratives, tutelary figures, and sacred spaces have intertwined among the three great monotheistic religions鈥擩udaism, Christianity, and Islam. The exhibition Shared Sacred Sites explores unique cases where different religious practices and communities intersect and coexist. Often overlooked in the West, this phenomenon reveals the historical, cultural, spiritual, and artistic interactions that have shaped these religions as well as the societies of the Mediterranean basin.
Ten years after it was first presented at Mucem in Marseille (29 April 鈥� 31 August 2015) and an international tour, the exhibition Shared Sacred Sites comes to Villa Medici in a new form, with special loans from the Vatican Museums, the Louvre, Mucem 鈥� the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, the MAXXI and the Museo ebraico di Roma. The exhibition invites visitors on a journey through various landscapes鈥攃ities, seas, gardens, caves, and mountains鈥攃onducive to the sharing of the sacred. It highlights intertwined histories and shared heritages, mapping out a spiritual geography where traditions, dialogue, and artistic creation converge.
The exhibition Shared Sacred Sites was designed and co-produced by the French Academy in Rome 鈥� Villa Medici, the Mucem and the French Embassy to the Holy See 鈥� Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, based on an original exhibition by Mucem. The exhibition has benefited from the expert advice of the Vatican Museums and the Museo ebraico di Roma.
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