A Brief History of Curiosity

Some cultural phenomena hibernate like marmots, or like Sleeping Beauties waiting for someone to awaken them. In the meantime, they continue to work in secret, like a subterranean river that runs through caves of limestone, enriching itself with minerals in the darkest depths before resurfacing. Patrick Mauriès brings back to life a recent chapter of Parisian life that already seems remote: some thirty years ago, after seeing a reproduction of the engraving on the preceding two pages, he met their maker, Érik Desmazières. This most unusual artist and curator – he was director of the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris for more than six years – revives the mythical theme of the Wunderkammer, the cabinet of curiosities, in his work. Before they met, Mauriès himself had already devoted a quarter-century to that theme, helping to awaken it from its long sleep. It has now become a fashion: Cabinet of Curiosities is even the subtitle of a Cirque du Soleil show. In an admirably rigorous style that is deliberately untouched by fashion, Desmazières opens before us, in these pages, his phantasmagorical treasure troves.