Curated by Alexandre Estaquet-Legrand, curator and director of the MUDO – Musée de l’Oise, and Lucy Hofbauer, art historian and director of the Quadrilatère, the exhibition Enterrer le soleil presents a scenographic journey combining Egyptian antiquities with contemporary artworks.

The bowels of the Earth, as much revered as they are feared, have been regarded in the mythologies of both ancient and modern societies as the seat of the sacred, the cradle of life. In Pharaonic Egypt, the Sun was believed to emerge each morning from the depths of the Earth; the underground was thus approached with respect and an acknowledgment of its sacred nature. Once the catabasis has begun, the subterranean world can reveal itself as a welcoming realm, where humans may find refuge and imagine, within the depths of the Earth, architectural and artistic fantasies. For artists, conquering the underground world also involves the creation or re-creation of invisible universes: from fantastical caves—material or digital—their works express a desire to return to the center of the Earth. Invisible worlds inspire; the underground may become an escape from the realities of the surface, or enable introspection, as a metaphor for our own inner world, itself buried and unseen. Could recreating a subterranean world be, at once, a way of revealing the beauty of this invisible universe while also bringing to light what lies deepest within us? The principle of life is germinating there. Both inspiring and intriguing, artists’ subterranean imaginaries reveal a perpetual quest: to bring light back into these buried worlds and unveil their hidden beauty. In short, to bury the sun…

What happens beneath our feet, out of sight, in the invisible depths below? A realm of anxiety, a kingdom of mythologies, a territory to be conquered or a refuge conducive to creation—the underground environment has continuously fascinated civilizations and artists from Antiquity to the present day. Countless fantasies and realities unfold beneath the surface: the underground seethes, teems, and inspires.

The exhibition Enterrer le soleil explores some of these subterranean realities that have mobilized the creative genius of artists from a wide range of disciplines, from the most ancient to the most contemporary.