À la mort, à la vie ! Vanités d'hier et d'aujourd'hui

Emblematic works from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, such as the vanities of Simon Renard de Saint-André and Pablo Picasso, will be on display alongside previously unseen works from the reserves, as well as major works from the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon and private collections, where the category of "memento mori" is a major focus.

This work will bring together works from the 16th to the 21st century, created to echo the famous words of Ecclesiastes according to which "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity". It will allow us to consider the different typologies that artists have used over the centuries to remind us of the inevitable end of all human activity. A wide variety of themes have been used by artists to express the fragility of life and to invite us to make the most of it. This recurring reminder certainly tends to relativise the importance of human pretensions, which are considered derisory, even condemnable, but it also aims to provoke an awareness that can in turn lead to a better use of the time allotted for each existence.

Among the artists presented in the exhibition are Hendrik Hondius, Armand Avril, Erró, Gilbert & George, Paul Rebeyrolle, Miquel Barcelo, Georg Pencz, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Francis Bacon, Jan Fabre, Bruce Nauman, etc.