The figure of Marianne, inseparable from France, until now had no place to tell her story. The town of Puylaurens remedied this by inaugurating, on October 18, the Marianne Museum in Tarn. It takes place next to the tourist office. In preparation since the bicentenary of the French Revolution, the project restarted in 2023.
The building, which is entered and exited through the tourist office, occupies a single level of 35 square meters, commensurate with this town of 3,000 inhabitants. Advised by the director of the Tarn museums, the La Marianne de Puylaurens association, which is responsible for the project, called on the Christelle Marty firm specializing in scenography and museography in order to highlight the little space available, according to Cathy Camou, president of the association.
Along the room, it is possible to see the “permanent exhibition” on the Marianne of Puylaurens as well as on the Republic, secularism, highlighted by interactive devices, as a space where you can give your definition of “liberty, equality, fraternity”, and a Marianne that you can dress, decorate and whose silhouette you can change. A temporary exhibition is held in the center of the room; focusing on the image of Marianne through the ages, particularly in popular culture or advertising. The works are presented for two years before becoming itinerant in schools.
The museum built a collection from that of the collector of Marianne objects Jean-Claude Higel, who sold part of his collection to the town hall. It has around 400 objects and just over a hundred busts. It also has extensive documentation, which has not yet been completely inventoried. Everything shows a great variety: paintings, stamps, drawings, medals.
The association has been active in promoting Marianne de Puylaurens for many years, and its events have made it possible to acquire several works, such as drawings by renowned caricaturists. There are images of the Charlie Hebdo attack, the opening of the Paris Olympic Games as well as town halls. Cathy Camou explains: “We wanted to show it as a symbol which does not belong to any party and which shows our values. » The entire project cost the town hall around €50,000.
The municipality’s choice for a museum on Marianne comes from historical works which lead us to believe that the figure of Marianne came from Puylaurens, following a song written by the Occitan shoemaker and singer Guillaume Lavabre, called La Garisou de Marianno, which “speaks of the fact that the diseases of the monarchy are cured by the Republic”says Cathy Camou. If the song dates from 1792, it was not until the 1970s that the director of the Institute of Occitan Studies discovered that it was the first evocation of Marianne as a French nation, which was confirmed by the historian Maurice Agulhon, who explained that it was a very common first name at that time. “When you know the song, you are sure of it”assures the president.
Several exhibitions focus on this symbol, such as in Millau currently, for the 120th anniversary of the 1905 law on secularism, where an exhibition is being held until October 31. This is not the only museum dedicated to the French Revolution and the Republic. In Vizille, in Isère, is the Museum of the French Revolution, opened in 1984 at the dawn of the bicentenary. It is installed in the castle of the Assembly of the three orders of Dauphiné, which met on July 21, 1788, an event considered to be one of those which led to the Revolution.
