Exhibition “Sacred images! The ex-voto in popular, contemporary and extra-Western art »

Exhibition “Sacred images! The ex-voto in popular, contemporary and extra-Western art »

The Musée de l’Image Populaire – François Lotz de Val-de-Moder has developed, in collaboration with Claudia Dapino from the Strasbourg gallery WYRD, an exhibition around the theme of ex-votos. From February 3, 2024, you will be able to discover this unusual object, which has nevertheless accompanied the daily lives of humans for several thousand years.

Originally, these objects were offerings placed in a sacred place for a deity, in order to obtain protection, healing or the fulfillment of a wish, but also to thank a higher power for a grace granted.

Many are used today as decoration, more particularly the famous sacred hearts that we see everywhere. We also find them in public spaces in the form of padlocks hung on bridges by lovers, coins placed at the bottom of fountains, small notes left in private spaces or ribbons tied to the branches of trees.

In the end, there are a multitude of objects that take a votive form without necessarily intending to do so. Without any necessary connection with a particular belief, we simply place an object and accompany it with a wish.

We divert, we are inspired and we thus reuse votive elements without religious structure. Believers and non-believers use them simultaneously. And this is also the case for artists and craftsmen who use the image of the ex-voto to create and share their inspirations.

You will discover the work of many artists:
Corinne Bongrand, Cécile Chareyron, Céline Chevrel, Garance Clavel, Françoise Dapino, Valentin DUTEIL, Claire Farris, Eliza Gabriel, Lidwine Lavergne, Lucile Marsaux, Sandrine Pillon, Tanguy Pinault, Berteline de Tarragon, the Arbogast Collection Chateau Musée Vodou de Strasbourg and the Alsatian Museum, Strasbourg City Museum