The exhibition "Sex, death and sacrifice in the Moche religion" brings together for the first time in Europe, 134 Moche ceramic showing a surprising realism sexual acts or sacrificial. The pottery we tell the people that the link established between the Moche religion, power, sexuality and death.

The religious iconography, surprising encounter of the sexual and the sacred, is unique in the pre-Columbian art and mythology to own Mochica.

It is sacrificial acts, but also sex between animals and / or anthropomorphic characters.

The Moche craftsmen have fashioned their pottery in the non-breeding rituals, making sexual attributes stylized themes central to the iconography of ritual function whose audacity is equal to the strength of their beliefs.
Steve Bourget offers key interpretation of the sexual imagery that is not related to the daily lives of the Moche, but refers to a political ideology and religious characteristics of their society. This ideology is inhabited by a desire to ensure the reproduction of the governing authority, the proper continuity of society, and generally that of the universe.

This pre-Columbian civilization of leading contemporary culture Nazca on the south coast, is among the largest indigenous cultures of the Andes, along the Inca Empire it preceded by more than five centuries. It developed the first century in the seventh century AD in an arid area of northern Peru. The massive burial sites (like that of "Lord of Sipan, exhumed in 1987), and huacas (ceremonial sites huge pyramid-shaped), have deepened our knowledge of this civilization through many accounts of graves exhumed and murals that adorn the tombs.

The exhibition invites to explore this pre-Columbian civilization by the prism of his unique mythology, in the absence of writing, we are provided with clean imagery that reflects the surprising encounter of the sacred, the sexual act and death.

It is important to understand that the sexual images contained on Moche ceramics are not illustrations of the everyday life of the Moche society. Also, their interpretation can be based on ideas and values of our own society, their message must be deciphered from a reconstruction of the particular context of the world
Moche, proposed this exhibition.

With particular emphasis on ceramic production, a facet of the Mochica craft rich and famous for its abundance and its realism, archaeologist Steve Bourget reveals the results of his research by studying systematically the set of Moche iconography.

However, the interpretations presented in the exhibition are necessarily speculative, given the incomplete nature of archaeological sources relating to this civilization.

The exhibition is loosely based on the book published by Steve Bourget, 2006: Sex, Death and Sacrifice in Moche Religion and Visual Culture. More...Musée du quai Branly: sex, death and sacrifice

Tuesday March 9 to Sunday, May 23, 2010