300 Islamic artworks redefine the history of Orientalism in Lens

LENS.— Containing some 300 masterpieces, the Beyond the One Thousand and One Nights exhibition invites visitors on a voyage through time to discover how, knowledge and imagined settings circulate and are transformed. The exhibition explores the multiple lives of artworks – the fates of objects since their creation, their travels and the reinterpretations and questions of new narratives are built, transformed and transferred.

In the early 18th century, Antoine Galland published a French version of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of tales from Indian and Persian traditions, first compiled in Arabic in the 9th century. Renowned for their otherworldly, enchanted tales, shaped by centuries of rewriting, revival and imagination, these stories gained immense popularity in Europe. Their success had a profound impact on portrayals of the Orient, demonstrating a desire for new horizons and acting as a mirror held up to the societies that adopted them.

But the story did not begin with Galland, nor did it start in the 18th century. From the Middle Ages, commercial, diplomatic and cultural exchanges caused objects, motifs and knowledge to circulate around the shores of the Mediterranean and beyond. Textiles and precious objects were transformed in church treasures and royal or princely collections, and were sometimes reused and transformed. Science, arts and literature from the Islamic world were well known, integrated and discussed. The Orient did not appear as homogeneous or inert space, but as a multifaceted and shifting reality that was defined differently depending on the era and context.

The Beyond the One Thousand and One Nights exhibition explores the fate of objects through a long-term perspective. Collected, admired, reinterpreted and sometimes poorly understood, they bear witness to their various uses, the investment under the attitudes that accompany them. This exhibition brings together major artworks from the Islamic Arts in the Louvre, making the most of the department’s temporary closure during its redesign, and is further expanded through exceptional loans from French and Belgian institutions. With a chronological and critical approach, the exhibition traces the cultural exchanges between the Orient and the Occident, from the Middle Ages until today, through a French lens. From Paris to Isfahan, from the Alhambra to Cairo, from Constantinople to Venice and Algiers, it takes visitors on a journey through time and space, where objects, imagined settings, humans and history cross paths.

The visit is divided into different sections: From the 8th century, objects originating from the Orient, seen as precious and miraculous, circulated throughout Europe and enriched church treasures and royal collections. The legend of the exchange between Charlemagne and Harun al-Rashid illustrates the prestige of these objects. From the 13th century, and especially the 16th century onwards, trade across the Mediterranean intensified the transfer of objects and skills, while diplomatic exchanges and fascination with the Ottoman Empire fostered the European fashion for “Turqueries and imagined worlds.” The Orient inspired artists, authors and musicians from Molière to Rameau, as did the translated and adapted One Thousand and One Nights. Historical and imaginary accounts were created around encounters such as the “Baptistery of St Louis”. In the 18th and 19th centuries, scholars travelled to the Alhambra and Cairo, revealing little-known cultural heritages, and inspiring Alhambra-inspired architecture and artistic creation. From Ingres to Delacroix and Gérôme to Matisse, not to mention the collectors Goupil and Delort de Gléon, whose collections have been recreated here, idealised and collected objects were reinterpreted in painting and interior decorations. The Paris Expositions popularised these often stereotyped images, while museums accorded a hierarchy to the arts. Today, the same museums are now examining these stories of Orientalisms.

Throughout the chronological visit of the exhibition, contemporary artists further reflect on these stories – Abbas Akhavan, Kader Attia, Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, Nezaket Ekici, Katia Kameli, Nicky Leclercq, Fatma Mazmouz, Sara Ouhaddou, Nazanin Pouyandeh, Zineb Sedira, Wael Shawky, Rayyane Tabet, Jamilah Sabur and Amir Youssef – revisiting these legacies and shifting attitudes, offering new readings that continue to structure and question the present.

Between the past, present and future, the exhibition invites visitors to think differently about how forms circulate and the way in which we look at artworks today. To return to the “One Thousand and One Nights” and to go “beyond” is to recognise that Orientalisms are stories. Like any story, they have been and can be transmitted, rewritten, modified, questioned, expanded, criticised and recreated. Like any story, they contain both light and dark elements. And like any story, the next stage in their history remains to be written, as demonstrated by the views of contemporary artists.

Exhibition curators

General curators: Annabelle Ténèze (director of the Louvre-Lens) and Youssef Noujaim (director, Department of Islamic Arts, Louvre Museum)
Scientific curator: Gwenaëlle Fellinger (curator, Department of Islamic Arts, Louvre Museum)