The Mucem tells the story, in 350 pieces, of how images, from the communion wafer to the love cake, were consumed around the Mediterranean, featuring Ingres, Meret Oppenheim, and Michel Journiac.

Images were consumed for a long time. The communion wafer, the waffle branded with a hot iron, bread kneaded into the shape of a face, the sugar figurine, the wooden mold carved with a saint: all were made only to be eaten. Three hundred and fifty pieces, 250 of which come from the Mucem's reserves, unfold this history across 1,200 square meters. Cakes with figurative designs are kept there in a cold storage room, giving the exhibition the unusual status of a pantry.

Around the molds, irons, and sculpted dishes, one finds Ingres and Daumier, then Meret Oppenheim, Michel Journiac, Dennis Oppenheim, and an excerpt from Cronenberg. Michel Journiac, who in 1969 served a blood sausage made from his own blood, resonates differently in a room full of communion wafers.

The idea comes from a book published in 2021, *The Iconophages*, which argued that the Christian West spent centuries ingesting its representations before learning to contemplate them from a distance. The exhibition traces this shift throughout the Mediterranean, from votive bread to food advertising and the bodies of contemporary art. The question remains, posed directly by the exhibition: what exactly happens to an image when it's put in the mouth?

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MUCEM, J4 LEVEL 2
From October 28, 2026 to April 12, 2027
1 Esplanade du J4, 13002 Marseille
Every day except Tuesday, from 10 am to 7 pm
Price: €11 - Reduced rate: €7.50 - Family ticket: €18 - One ticket for all exhibitions

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