Raphaël Bories

A graduate of the Sorbonne, the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and the Institut national du patrimoine, Raphaël Bories (1988, France) has been curator at the Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem) since 2020, where he is in charge of the “Beliefs and Religions” section. At Mucem, he works in particular on the history of Italian ethnology, the links between the Middle Ages and popular art, and the relationship between artistic creation and photography and anthropology. Curator of numerous exhibitions, in 2025 he will be co-curator of the “Lieux saints partagés” exhibition at Villa Medici.

His residency project is part of his doctoral thesis on “Les métamorphoses de saint Louis de Toulouse. Mémoires urbaines et modèles iconographiques dans l’Italie de la fin du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance”, supervised by Etienne Anheim at EHESS. Through the study of images and texts, the aim is to reconstruct the multiple investments and reinvestments in memory of Louis IX’s grand-nephew, who chose to renounce the crown of the Kingdom of Naples to become a Franciscan. Following on from the work of Daniel Arasse, particular attention will be paid to observant preaching and its influence on artistic production.