Exhibition conceived and co-produced by the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, the Mucem (Museum of Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean – Marseille), and the French Embassy to the Holy See – Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, based on an original exhibition by the Mucem.
For its fall exhibition, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici presents a journey along the routes of the sacred from Gentile da Fabriano and Le Corbusier to Chagall, with special loans from the Vatican Museums, the Museo ebraico di Roma, the Louvre and the Mucem.
How can a place be both sacred and shared? In common understanding, a sanctuary is usually associated with a single faith. Yet it is not uncommon for worshippers to cross doctrinal boundaries and pray in the holy place of another religion, in veneration of a shared sacred figure.
To mark the 2025 Jubilee in Rome, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici presents the exhibition Shared Sacred Sites from October 9, 2025 to January 19, 2026. The show brings together major works from French, Italian, and Vatican collections placed in dialogue with contemporary creations. From Gentile da Fabriano to Marc Chagall, via Le Corbusier, it seeks to shed light—through works of art—on a sometimes little-known yet very present religious phenomenon in the Mediterranean: sanctuaries shared by worshippers of different religions.
Each to their own God, scriptures, saints. However, since their origins, ritual practices, founding narratives, tutelary figures, and sacred spaces have intertwined among the three great monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The exhibition Shared Sacred Sites explores unique cases where different religious practices and communities intersect and coexist. Often overlooked in the West, this phenomenon reveals the historical, cultural, spiritual, and artistic interactions that have shaped these religions as well as the societies of the Mediterranean basin.
Ten years after it was first presented at Mucem in Marseille (29 April – 31 August 2015) and an international tour, the exhibition Shared Sacred Sites comes to Villa Medici in a new form, with special loans from the Vatican Museums, the Louvre, Mucem – the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, the MAXXI and the Museo ebraico di Roma. The exhibition invites visitors on a journey through various landscapes—cities, seas, gardens, caves, and mountains—conducive to the sharing of the sacred. It highlights intertwined histories and shared heritages, mapping out a spiritual geography where traditions, dialogue, and artistic creation converge.
The exhibition Shared Sacred Sites was designed and co-produced by the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, the Mucem and the French Embassy to the Holy See - Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, based on an original exhibition by Mucem. The exhibition has benefited from the expert advice of the Vatican Museums and the Museo ebraico di Roma.... read the rest of the article»
The exhibition benefits of the sustain of BNL BNP Paribas.
The catalogue
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog co-published by Silvana Editoriale and Villa Medici, featuring texts by the curators and previously unpublished contributions from authors and experts invited to elucidate the themes of the exhibition.
Authors of the catalogue
Dionigi Albera, Raphaël Bories, Alberta Campitelli, Eleonora D'Alessandro, Paolo La Spisa, Vincent Lemire, Adnane Mokrani, Manoël Pénicaud
240 pages
Dual edition (French and Italian)
Format: 24.5 x 30 cm
The curators
Dionigi Albera is an anthropologist and director of research at the CNRS, specializing in Europe and the Mediterranean. He has published some twenty books on migrations, the family, pilgrimages, and forms of inter-religious mixing. His theoretical work has contributed to renewing comparative approaches to monotheistic religions.
Raphaël Bories has been curator at the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM) since 2020 and is responsible for the "Beliefs and Religions" section. At MuCEM, he works particularly on the history of Italian ethnology, the links between the Middle Ages and popular art, and the relationship of artistic creation and photography to anthropology.
Manoël Pénicaud is an anthropologist at the CNRS and a member of the Centre Jacques Berque in Rabat. His work lies within the field of the anthropology of religiosity, pilgrimages, and interreligious relations in the Euro-Mediterranean area. He is also a photographer, documentary filmmaker, and exhibition curator, notably of Shared Sacred Sites since 2015.
The exhibition: 7 chapters, over 100 works, 3 continents, nearly 2,000 years of history
Chapter 1: Sacred Cities
Benji Boyadgian (b. 1983, Jerusalem)
Collection Stefano Borgia
(1731, Velletri, IT - 1804, Lyon, FR)
David Brognon (b. 1978, Messancy, BE)
& Stéphanie Rollin (b. 1980, Luxembourg, LU)
Ludovico Carracci (b. Bologna, IT, 1555 - 1619)
Louis De Clerq
(1837, Paris, FR - 1901, Oignies, FR)
Bernard Dumas
Christophe Gaultier
(b. 1969, Châteauroux, FR)
Jimmy Glasberg
(1940, Nimes, FR - 2023, Tulette, FR)
Eva Fisher
(1920, Daruvar, HR - 2015, Rome, IT)
Vincent Lemire (b. 1973, Paris, FR)
Antonio Lorenzoni
Nira Pereg (b. 1969, Tel-Aviv, ISR)
Chapter 2: The sea
Gentile di Niccolò dit Gentile da Fabriano
(1370, Fabriano, IT - 1427, Rome, IT)
Rachid Koraïchi (b. 1947, Aïn Beïda, DZ)
Francesco Tuccio (b. 1966, Lampedusa, IT)
Chapter 3: The garden
Dana Awartani (b. 1987, SAU)
Adam Broomberg
(b. 1970, Johannesburg, ZA)
Marc Chagall (1887, Liozna, Biélorussie, BY
- 1985, St-Paul-de-Vence, FR)
Raphaël Gonzalez
Ayşe Raziye Özalp (b. 1977, Istanbul, TU)
Ellefi Nasser (b. 1956, Tripoli, LY)
Rayan Yasmineh (b. 1996, Paris, FR)
Chapter 4: The mountain
Hamed Abdalla
(1917, Le Caire, EG - 1985, Paris, FR)
Gianni Berengo Gardin
(1930, Santa Margherita Ligure, IT – 2025, Genova, IT)
Marc Chagall (1887, Liozna, Biélorussie, BY
- 1985, St-Paul-de-Vence, FR)
Adrien Dauzats
(1804, Bordeaux, FR - 1868, Paris, FR)
Elliott Erwitt
(1928, Paris, FR - 2023, New-York, US)
Stella Perugia
Ivo Saglietti
(1948, Toulon, FR - 2023, Gênes, IT, 2023)
David Sauveur (b. 1974, Dinard, FR)
Chapter 5: The cave
Hamed Abdalla
(1917, Cairo, EG - 1985, Paris, FR)
Abdallah Akar (b. 1952, TN)
Ayşe Raziye Özalp (b. 1977, Istanbul, TU)
Giovanni di Paolo (1403 - 1482, Sienne, IT)
Pietro di Giovanni dit Lorenzo Monaco
(env. 1370, Sienne, IT - env. 1423, Florence, IT)
Osama Msleh (b. 1970, Damas, SY)
Chapter 6: Itinerant objects
Alix Boillot (b. 1992, Paris, FR)
Matilde Cassani (b. 1980, Domodossola, IT)
Musa Ibn Istifan (b. XVII centuary)
Abdul Wahab Mohmand (b. 1982, Kaboul, AF)
Chapter 7: Architectures
Adjaye Associates
Félix Bonfils
(1831, Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, FR - 1885, Alès, FR)
Le Corbusier
(1887, La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH -
1965, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, FR)
Camille Enlart
(1862, Boulogne-sur-Mer, FR - 1927, Paris, FR)
Louis Haghe
(1806, Tournai, BE - 1885, Londres, GB)
Armin Linke (b. 1966, Milan, IT)
Kuehn Malvezzi
André Martin
(1928, Saint-Laurent-en-Caux, FR - 1999, Douentza, ML)
Israël Silvestre (1621, Nancy, FR - 1961, Paris, FR)
Title: Shared Sacred Sites
Journeys between religions
Opening: October 09, 2025
Ending: January 19, 2026
Organization: Accademia di Francia a Roma – Villa Medici, il Mucem e l'Ambasciata di Francia
Curator: Dionigi Albera, Raphaël Bories, Manoël Pénicaud
Place: Roma, Villa Medici
Address: Viale della Trinità dei Monti, 1 - 00187 Roma (RM)
More info on this website: https://villamedici.it/
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