Fantasy Asia. Stories of exoticism in the decorative arts in Provence in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries

From June 23, 2023 to May 19, 2024

Château Borély, Museum of Decorative Arts, Earthenware and Fashion. 132 avenue Clot Bey- 13008 Marseille

Due to its privileged position, Marseille has always been the crucible of multiple exchanges. If the European fascination with the Far East, India or the Ottoman Empire is well known from the 18th century, its manifestations in Provence are less so. It is this great attraction for Asian “exoticism” in Marseille and its region that the exhibition aims to highlight through more than 400 works of art coming from or inspired by a dreamed Asia, from Turkey to Japan

Between imported pieces, pastiches and Western works marked by Asian aesthetics, the exhibition offers both unique and spectacular insight into this omnipresent theme in the decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Furniture and wall decorations, prints and paintings, fans, statuettes in bronze, jade, ivory, curiosities, pieces of goldwork, old textiles and of course earthenware and porcelain will illustrate these exchanges between Asia and Provence and in particular the formidable craze for Indian women, fabrics inseparable from the Provençal clothing tradition.