The shutter of Rouen (Seine-Maritime) of the exhibition “Arts of Islam, a past for a present”, started at the Museum of ceramics. It is an event-based exhibition, managed by the Louvre, and available in 18 cities in France. Objective: to highlight all the diversity and richness of the arts of Islam, from the Maghreb to India via the Turkish-speaking area, over the course of 1,300 years of history. Free entry.

From Cordoba to Isfahan

In the 18 cities, the exhibition follows the same system. In a first room, there is the presentation of a film on architectural riches, in the most emblematic cities such as Cordoba, Algiers or Isfahan. In a second room, there are ten national works (from the Middle Ages to the present day), from local collections and. In Rouen, there are seven masterpieces from the collections of the RMM (meeting of the metropolitan museums), and three works from the national collections, on loan from the Louvre and Quai Branly museums. Visitors can admire an Indian powder horn from the 17th century.^e century, a decorative panel dating from the end of the 17th^e/ early XVIII^e or a contemporary Iraqi photograph.

An important Islamic fund in Rouen

Note that this exhibition was an opportunity to list the objects relating to the arts of Islam, in the collections of metropolitan museums. Result: no less than 200 listed works, which in the future will be presented in a dedicated space, permanently, in one of the 11 museums in Rouen.

The exhibition “Arts of Islam, a past for a present” is an ambitious and innovative project of will, born from the will of the government to contribute to changing the views of the general public on Islam, especially within youth, in a troubled international geopolitical context (and even as Islam is being exploited in the current French media hubbub). This is why this program associates the Ministries of Culture and National Education, alongside museum and cultural institutions (Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais, Institut du monde arabe, network of regional contemporary art funds, Arab World Institute, Fondation Islam de France). The project is curated by Yannick Lintz, general heritage curator, director of the Department of Islamic Arts at the Louvre.

Practical information :
Exhibition “Arts of Islam, a past for a present”, until March 27, 2022 at the Ceramics Museum, 1, rue Faucon, or 94, rue Jeanne d’Arc, in Rouen.
Museum open to the public every day, except Tuesday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Closed on 1^uh January 1st^uh May, 1^uh and November 11, December 25.
Free admission

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