1. Jean Arp, Demeter, 1961, Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais _ Philippe Migeat, © ADAGP, Paris, 2023
The mysteries of the ground(s)
The newly opened exhibition of the Louvre Lens, under the title “Subterranean Worlds - 2000 leagues under the earth” (Until 22.7.2024) is part of a series of exhibitions presenting the surrounding environment of the museum.
The overall question of this exhibition is what’s happening underground (nowadays and in the past), and how artists, historians and storytellers took advantage of this mysterious space in their creation.
To do so, the curators, Alexandre Estaquet-Legrand, Jean-Jacques Terrin and Gautier Verbeke, have amassed more or less 200 works, coming from numerous institutions and from different periods in history, to create a dialogue. While the show is made out of numerous sections, more or less by themes, it explores todays and yesterday’s fascination for the world we rarely explore, the world we rarely see or think of even if it’s full of mysteries and resources.
The rundown of the exhibition
2. Jean-Jacques Caffieri, La Sibylle d'Érythrée, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre, Hervé Lewandowski
The exhibition is, for the first time, in the opposite direction of visits. Generally, the exhibition of the Louvre lens always starts at your right, and finishes in the passageway, which is generally never used to present work or texts.
This time, the show starts with a contemporary installation of the artist Julien Appert titled “La Caverne”. A doubled side installation presenting a blurred image full of colours.
While you turn to your left, you encounter a dark passageway animated by sounds created by the studio “Nuits Noirs”, thus creating a dark environment and feeling, while walking toward “La Sibylle d’Érythrée” created by Jean-Jacques Caffieri (1725-1792).
While this small sculpture made out of marble presents a Sybille, a woman who received the gift of prophecy from the god Apollo and practiced their art freely during the ancient time, this work was part of a larger group. In Greek history, there being eight sibyls, among which Cumae and Tibur found a prominent place in the literature of Latin authors and in the works of artists.
With the advent of Christianity, their number increased from ten to twelve. In Greece as in Rome, tradition held that the sibyls resided in natural underground caverns. The most ancient of them was the Sibyl of Erythrae named after the city in Asia where she originated and where she delivered her oracles in verse, unlike other seeresses.
After being welcome by those cibiles, the first section of the exhibition introduces the viewer to the fascination and fear of this hidden part of our planet. And while the question of what lies beneath the earth has intrigued humanity for centuries, this fascination is reflected in old masters and modern artworks such as Rubens, Courbet, Christo, and Gao Xingjian. By crafting their work, they experimented with this fascination, sometime figuratively with the creation of lush and mysterious caves or physically, such as the work of Christo which is a relief, which resemble the crater of a volcano.
These places were also full of myths and danger. During antiquity, the Greeks believed that Zeus imprisoned the Titans underground, a concept that persisted until the 18th century when scholars began to seek scientific explanations for these phenomena.
3. Alphonse Mucha, Le Gouffre, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre, Hervé Lewandowski
On the other hand, Mucha's explorations reflect the fascination and mythological tales that surround these places. In “Le Gouffre”, the artist opposed an empty, dark and earthy foreground with a luminous, almost iridescent background. While at first glance, the visitor is looking at a landscape, they look at a skeleton, the nose or rather the nasal cavity, in the air. While its depiction is blurry, thanks to the pastel technique, the picture is a mix between anxiety and tranquillity, death and life.
The second section of the exhibition deals with the theme of fear, an emotion linked to those spaces where myths such as the abduction of Persephone and the fall of rebel angels emphasize the abyss as a gateway to a hostile universe.
While the “Abyss”, meaning "bottomless, unfathomable, boundless”, comes from the Greek, the concept reflects on terror and a lack of freedom, which has been a powerful theme in art and mythology.
Those places serve as prisons for society’s outcasts and condemned, from ancient dungeons to modern trenches. Nonetheless, the theme of death is also presented, especially the fear of being buried alive, a terror present since antiquity.
In André Decambez picture, titled “The Thought of the Absent”, the artist had a very different experience of the trenches, which he photographed with the military painter Georges Scott. This picture were used as report proofs for the army museum and the magazine L'Illustration.
The trypitch, present on the side panel titled “La Pensée” and “Les Trous d’obus”. While depicting it’s interest of the earth and the inhabited spaces, the artist was inspired by two prints from his series published in 1916. In the work, he depicts an isolated poilu who reads a letter by the light of a candle, three comrades take shelter in a crater, and in the central panel, his mother, his wife and on the left, his daughter Valentine.
The third section of the show explores the burial practices and symbolism reflected by the subterranean worlds and especially its link to death and religion. From ancient Mesopotamian beliefs to the Christian religion, it is often referred to hell. Thus, the basement forms an ancestral relationship with death, burial and cremation of dead bodies.
But all in all, civilizations have also envisioned various pathways to afterlife, from the Greek river Styx to the Tibetan Bardo. These journeys are fraught with trials and guarded by mythical creatures. Some artists have drawn inspiration from these stories, portraying gods and heroes like Orpheus and Hercules as they navigate these perilous realms.
Those pathways have sometime been populated by monsters and Demons, and an array of terrifying creatures, from Cerberus, the three-headed dog, to demons with large ears and fangs. These beings, rooted in mythological and religious sources, are depicted across cultures, illustrating the universal fear and fascination with the underworld.
The fourth section emerges on the visitor to reality. How does philosophers and scientists have learned from those environments, such as Plato’s allegory of the cave to geologists who helped us understand the underground world.
One of those elements lied in the study of volcanic activity and earthquakes in the 18th century, who marked a shift towards scientific explanations, moving away from mythological interpretations and unsourced explanations.
Nonetheless, those new discoveries didn’t stop writers and the cinema industry to create new worlds, such as Jules Verne’s adventures. Those stories are a blend of knowledge and imagination, inviting audiences to immerse themselves in these mysterious realms. The main character in the story will be miner, a symbol of courage, virtue, who embodies the modern hero of the underground. Depicted in statues and postcards, miners face real dangers like tunnel collapses and gas explosions, turning the subterranean world into a realm of human endurance and bravery.
Those miners will help us discover the resources of the earth’s Resources, rooted in fertility and richness in our soil.
One of the most common treasures, the one we use almost every day are fossils and precious stones. Since antiquity, these wonders have been collected in cabinets of curiosities, illustrating the earth’s complexity and beauty, but also exploited by us, to create a better world, where we can create electricity, have a call, write an article like I do right now, has been due to those stones and elements.
Those stones might create power and symbol, ranging from life, fertility and regenerative powers, who try to give tranquillity in a world of endless creations and fantasy, from the depiction and creation of Renaissance grottos, these spaces offer a blend of mythological, telluric, and rustic elements who serve as retreats and places of wonder, inspiring artists with their imaginative decorations, thus creating the Grotesque genre.
The last section of the exhibition explores the link of underground world to utopia. While living underground is a concept between functionality and fantasy, they actually draw inspiration from historical and modern infrastructures such as the Metro, who sparked both utopian visions and practical architectural solutions.
Nowadays, modern urban projects explore the potential of these underground spaces to address contemporary challenges such as pollution and overcrowding, offering innovative solutions for living and working below the surface. This evolution highlights the complex relationship between society and its subterranean worlds, showcasing how metro systems, culture, and counterculture intersect in the depths of our cities.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Louvre Lens
Date: 27.3.2024 - 22.7.2024
Curators: Alexandre Estaquet-Legrand, Jean-Jacques Terrin and Gautier Verbeke
Ticket: Available online OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Louvre Lens
99 rue Paul Bert
62 300 Lens
Phone: +33 (3) 21 18 62 62