Lyon: “The Time of a Dream” – A New Exhibition at the Musée des Confluences Delves into the Nature of Dreams, Examining Their Purpose While Honoring Their Enigmatic Essence

Study dreams through the prism of art, history, sociology, different cultures or ancient beliefs… How to overcome the obvious barrier of this phenomenon as personal as it is universal, so close and yet so far from a tangible reality? How to make the dream come true, how to understand its complexity, its mysteries and its accessibility in 1000 m2?

The dream analyzed from all its angles

Under pouring rain, at the meeting point between the Saône and the Rhône, the Confluences museum stands. A connecting element between the land and the rivers, the monument is animated by a new energy which comes to visit it a few times a year: a unique exhibition is about to open its doors to the general public. Like many, it is the result of long-standing reflection. Titled The time of a dreamit finally sees the light of day after having been thought of, worked on and then staged since 2022 by Yoann Cormier and his team.

The dream, a theme which fascinates and therefore which has already been approached through a more medical prism, via other subjects such as surrealism… “The specificity of this exhibition is that it is transversal, that it tries to take an interest in several points of view, in several schools”, explains Yoann Cormier. Indeed, between the neuroscientist's laboratory and the psychoanalyst's office, passing through the practices of oneiromancy, the nightmare and the artists' gallery, the dream is dissected from all its angles…. even the scariest ones.

photo credit: Louise Guyonnet

The visitor is therefore led to wander through a veritable labyrinth and then head towards a second part of the exhibition, dedicated to “awakening”. But before returning to the world of the living, he will have to pass through seven rooms, in an original sensory and dreamlike atmosphere. Within this 1000 m2 space, visitors can give free rein to their imagination and touch, smell, listen, be surprised, be frightened (reasonably) and above all learn.

A poetic labyrinth and a playful touch as a final point

Because the theme is finely explored and widely illustrated. Different points of view are addressed, that of the scientist, the artist, the psychoanalyst and through the prism of different cultures.

photo credit: Louise Guyonnet Room of practices and cultural testimonies

The visitor constantly goes from rooster to donkey during these temporal and geographical stopovers… To then emerge from his “sleep” by completing his dreamlike wandering in a white room, the color of morning sheets and crumpled paper.

photo credit: Louise Guyonnet Recovery Room

There, he can consult different dream reports (hairy, prisoners, lucid dreamers) and note the disturbing importance of an individual's experience for the scenario of these psychic productions. Even Artificial Intelligence is part of the project, offering a special fun activity at the end of the journey: by entrusting a few key words to the system's microphone, your most beautiful dream materializes before the visitor's eyes and in full view. of others. An original way to counterbalance the intangible and personal aspect of dreams.

“Understanding the dream and its function”, this is one of the main points of interest of the exhibition according to Hélène Lafont-Couturier, General Director of the Musée des Confluences. Illustrating this function, a real challenge for Yoann Cormier, for whom the main difficulty was to “find different objects” capable of representing a phenomenon as intangible, immaterial and personal as dreams. Challenge met: “the exhibition has between 140 and 150 objects”.

Dreams and Science: how to study the intangible

By spending ⅓ of his life sleeping, or around 10 years dreaming, Man unconsciously dedicates part of his existence to this parallel, little-known, elusive and fascinating state. Defined by some as a “psychic production”, established by others as a real gateway to the unconscious, proclaimed (was it for a while?) as a means of predicting the future… The scientific, psychic and supernatural properties attributed to dreams are numerous and widely debated.

As Sophie Schwartz, Swiss neuroscientist and professor at the University of Geneva, explains, the dream is established as a “scientific subject of the highest importance” from the second half of the 19th century, at the beginning of experimental psychology. However, this importance was undermined during the advent of psychoanalysis, where the dream then took on a more psychological and therapeutic role than a scientific one. It would not allow us to know more about how the brain works.

In the 1950s, the discovery of paradoxical sleep by researchers at the University of Chicago put dreams at the center of scientific concerns. During this phase, dreams are more intense and more concrete than during other phases. These are the dreams that we remember when we wake up. The activity of the brain is such that it is close to that adopted when the individual is awake. This is why it is said, “ at the time [de la découverte] of paradoxical sleep that it corresponds to a third state of consciousness, between wakefulness and sleep”, explains Sophie Schwartz.

Today, it is established that dreams play a crucial role for mental health, the process of memorization and even for the creativity of an individual. We also know which areas of the brain are activated during dreams, and which are blocked (for example, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex responsible for logical reasoning is blocked). But science still has a lot to learn about the mechanics of dreams, the dark sides of which continue to leave many wondering…

To reserve your place for the exhibition: Musée des Confluences