DP MJCCSW 4.10_EN - copie - Maison de la France

© Lisa Ricciotti
“The truth is too stark to be of any interest to man.” (Jean Cocteau)
The building must allow itself to be discovered. Shouldn’t it retain a bit of its mystery? The
mystery of the project’s articulation between conception and production, of its static elements?
The museum accepts its own image, its transparency rouses the viewer’s curiosity, drawing in
through what it reveals.
It thus calls to mind the passage between the worlds of the living and the dead, a theme often
returned to by the artist.
It also conveys the notion of a labyrinth, recalling the complexity of Cocteau as well as the
breadth and variety of his creative vision. We are in his universe.
© Lisa Ricciotti
For this museum, we needed to create an atmosphere conveying the full force of the diametrical
oppositions between light and dark, this play of shadows thus provoking “the emotion inspiring
us to see, believe, think and dream,” in the words of Henri Alekan, cinematographer for La Belle
et la Bête, who added, “I will record what I see on the roll of film as if I were writing in ink.”
Alekan honours the poetic vision of Cocteau, who often juxtaposed light and dark in his films,
with surfaces and depths set against each other, fully conscious of the psychological role of light
and shadow for feeling and knowledge.
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