Museums & Millennium : The Grand Illusion

These new technologies have a magical power of putting us into direct contact with the dead. It is no longer a question of interpreting the body, but of seeing it as if it were alive once more. Furtive images recall forgotten moments and people. An infinite swarm of ghosts from the past. emerges from oblivion and comes to life before our eyes.


		Sometimes, we know the deceased only through images preserved by their relatives. Like this grandmother whose features are familiar to the grandchildren that never met her... MHNN, private collection


		Sculpture, Ousmane Sow / Photo: Catherine Meyer

Beloved, cheery, transformed, wounded, worshipped bodies suddenly appear. For a second, a minute or an hour, we view a precise moment in time. A moment that feels like eternity. The illusion is almost perfect: the photograph could come to life and the person walk off the screen. But no, it’s only a scrap of film or paper. The dream may be sweet or it may be sad.


		Recumbent figure of Victor Noir, a young journalist shot to death by Prince Pierre Bonaparte in 1870. Every day, flowers are placed on this grave in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Photo: Marc Juillard