Witches

“Witches”: an exceptional exhibition at the Musée d’histoire de Nantes

Through an immersive and rigorously researched itinerary, this exhibition invites the public to explore one of the most widespread persecutions in history: that of women accused of witchcraft, from the twilight of the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period.

Rising above clichés and stereotypes, this show shines a light on the historical, social, and cultural roots of the “witch”, revealing both the myriad realities – as well as the many fictions –projected onto this term over time.

The exhibition opens with sorceresses of antiquity, who were celebrated by ancient poets and writers alike, and whose rites and practices were widely known. It then moves through the deep anxieties of medieval times, and the trials of the Inquisition, before focusing on the intensified witch hunts of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The itinerary concludes with the gradual decriminalization of occult practices and the contemporary reappropriation of the witch as a figure of empowerment, freed from any evil connotation.

To best represent this dizzying historical timeline, nearly 180 works and objects – engravings, paintings, ancient manuscripts, ritual objects, and tools of witchcraft – loaned out by prestigious French and European institutions – along with a range of multimedia displays (films, testimonies, animated maps, sound design, and more) will be found throughout the itinerary, playing on the fine line between reality and imagination.

Oscillating between the collective imaginary, suppressed memory, and the history of fear, this exhibition seeks to cast a critical and much-needed light on a troubled era. It also reveals the profound contemporary relevance of a subject whose issues – gender, bodies, sexuality, domination, manipulation, and erasure – remain at the heart of contemporary concerns.