MuCEM, the Musée des Civilisations d’Europe et de Méditerranée, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jen Giono’s death with an exhibition curated by the writer Emmanuelle Lambert. The museum has brought together some 300 original items giving a thorough overview of his life and work. Pascal Rodriguez’ exhibition design includes an immersive installation and an evocation of his library, where he read voraciously and where his own writings came into being. Born in Manosque with an Italian father, Giono worked in a bank before earning international fame as a writer. Admired by his peers, praised to the skies by many, Jean Giono took root in the Provence of plateaux and valleys. There, for more than 50 years, novels, short stories, tales, poems, essays, plays and films flowed from his pen in a constant stream of words and images. Born at the dawn of the 20th century, he lived through two world wars, one as a soldier and one as a draft dodger. From the anarchistic side of communism he moved to libertarianism, but he was a humanist above all. The titles of some of his books sound like exhortations for our day, salutary warnings, perhaps even prophetic: The Man Who Planted Trees (L’homme qui plantait des arbres), Joy of Man’s Desiring (Que ma joie demeure), The Serpent of Stars (Le Serpent d’étoiles), Les vraies richesses (‘True riches’).
Du 30 octobre 2019 au 17 février 2020
Mucem Esplanade du J4, Marseille 2e
Par Gérard Martin