Exposition Le temps d'un rêve

Within the space of a dream

Temporary exhibition

From 18 October 2024 to 24 August 2025

Get ready to immerse yourself in the worlds of dream

Human beings spend a third of their lives asleep and much of that time dreaming. And yet...Being fleeting and elusive by nature, dreams are often poorly understood or misinterpreted, and are given little consideration in present-day western societies.

From Ancient Greek dream incubation temples to neuroscience laboratories, from the psychoanalyst’s couch to the artist’s imagination, from one continent to another, the exhibition provides a whole range of steps to approaching their mystery. Explore these various worlds where dreams take shape and learn more about their mechanisms. The borders between reality and decor, between wakefulness and dreamlike visions fade away.

Then wake up. Did you dream?

© Musée des Confluences

The exhibition route

1/8

Dreaming under electrodes

What can contemporary science teach us about dreams? Have we finally identified their function? Are well all equal when it comes to dreaming? In the “lab”, scientists try to answer such questions with the help of the latest scientific data.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
2/8

Dream incubation temples

The ritual of incubation (from the Latin incubare, “to lie down”) may be regarded as the earliest form of medical consultation. During Antiquity, it emerged in all four corners of the world, constituting a bridge between sacred and profane, and linking humanity to the deities through the tenuous thread of dreams. Incubation found its most eloquent expression in Ancient Greece, beneath the portico of Asclepius’ shrine.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
3/8

A portal between two worlds

In many cultures, dreams are interpreted as a space for encounters and communication between beings, whether human or non-human, living or dead. They give access to another form of reality. Hence, they are perceived as portals to other worlds.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
4/8

Artists’ visions

Dreams accompany the artistic history of the Western World. Their depiction in the arts has evolved alongside successive redefinitions of the oneiric phenomenon. Dreams were long seen as prophetic; it was only belatedly, in the second half of the 19th century, that the “personal” dream was finally granted artistic legitimacy.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
5/8

Tested by dreams

A nightmare expresses a failure of the emotion regulation process during sleep. A way of testing the dreamer with an emotionally impactful scenario inspired by events experienced or hardships to come. Hence, dreams put us to the test so as to help us confront similar situations in reality

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
6/8

The key to dreams

Oneiromancy, the art of interpreting dreams, has its roots in Antiquity. The practice has been perpetuated across the ages, evolving in order to adapt to beliefs and cultures. Since the 16th century in Europe, “Keys to Dreams” have taken the form of dictionaries listing the themes most likely to appear in dreams and assigning premonitory meanings to dream images.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
7/8

On the couch

According to the Austrian neurologist and psychologist Sigmund Freud, dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious”. They don’t tell us about the future as oneiromancy had previously suggested, but about the dreamer’s past. A dream isn’t a message from the outside, but a message to yourself.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve
8/8

Dream journals, in the dreamer’s private world

A distinction is often made between “small” and “big” dreamers. But paying attention to your dreams, noting them down when you wake up, considerably increases your ability to remember them. Numerous individuals, anonymous and distinguished alike, have bequeathed us invaluable historical and sociological testimonies via their dream journals.

Read more
Exposition Le temps d'un rêve

Partners