At the MuCEM, “Eating Images” looks at iconophagy

The show focuses on the moment when an image is no longer only seen, but consumed, absorbed, or folded into an act of desire or devotion. By placing very different objects side by side, the museum opens up a history of images that goes beyond painting alone and reaches into ritual, belief, and everyday use.

For artists and for people who care about drawing and painting, the subject is compelling because it shifts the question of looking: what happens to an image when it is meant to be eaten, worn, handled, or kept as an object? The exhibition invites viewers to think about the material life of artworks as much as their representational power.

With works ranging from the old to the contemporary, and from the sacred to the secular, the exhibition shows how one idea can travel across time in very different forms. Rather than offering a simple art-historical survey, the MuCEM proposes a reflection on how images circulate and how they enter daily life.