How about meditating in museums?

In museums, the trend is towards the express consumption of art. To be truly absorbed by a work becomes rare. This is why the Brussels native Marjan Abadie had the idea of ​​creating the method Mindful Art Experience (conscious artistic experience), “to see through the work of art, to go beyond intellectual understanding and towards more emotional and intuitive knowledge.” It is well known: one sees well only with the heart.

With about ten participants, we sit down that morning in a circle on a chair facing the work. Jupiter and Semele by the painter Gustave Moreau. A painting from 1895 that we are discovering for the first time. With our backs straight, we close our eyes, focusing our attention on our breathing … “And whenever your attention flutters elsewhere on the file to be dealt with or the weekend to prepare, just bring your attention back to the sensations of your breathing.”

Then Marjan Abadie invites us to open our eyes to the work of Gustave Moreau.

“Just let yourself observe it with that beginner’s mind, of the non-knowing. The beautiful blue, the columns, all these adornments. Slowly, let your eyes open to the eyes of the central figure, whose head is halo in red, watch this person. How do you think his skin texture might be. Can he have soft skin? “

So we dive into the hypnotic blue gaze of the main character – probably a woman – whose skin could be velvety. “Do you think he is inviting you to engage with him or pulling you away. Do you feel that he is looking at you, or he is in distant skies. Do you feel any emotion? looking at him? “

This woman adorned with jewels seems worried. We try to imagine who she could be, what she thinks… Marjan Abadie asks us to take the same posture as this character or to imagine taking it. “Because our mirror-neurons work very well. When you imagine something, it’s like doing it. So don’t hesitate to keep your back straight, with the same head posture.”

This approach allows us to connect the mind and the body which welcomes all our emotions. Once the eyes are closed, it is like in a dark room, the pictures of the painting reveal themselves as photos. Astonishing! In his canvas, Gustave Moreau represents Semélé, a young mortal princess, here devastated by the vision of her lover, Jupiter, who has metamorphosed …

We have the feeling of forging an intimate link with the work. “What I liked a lot, says a participant, it’s that you leave aside everything you think you know and above all, everything you don’t know about a work, and it’s funny to see how that calls for very personal memories. Me, it brought me back to childhood dreams, and I love it, because suddenly, the work becomes a kind of filter of oneself to live a little inner adventure. And that takes a lot of pressure off. The pressure of the museum to understand, to be able to tell afterwards. And that I like a lot! “

These meditation sessions at the museum are accessible to everyone, including from home when away from home. Between 8 and 40 euros, the price is free, because Marjan Abadie pays the whole amount to associations Doctor of the world and We Forest.

Registration on the mindful-art.eu site.