In Le Promontoire du songe, written in 1863, Victor Hugo recounts a striking visual experience. It is about the observation of the surface of the Moon through a telescope, the discovery of its reliefs and the volcano called the Promontory of the Dream. Very quickly, he establishes a comparison between the revelation of the lunar landscape and the way works of art are revealed to the eye1. The text is remarkable in its way of pointing out the initial blindness which can be ours when, for the first time, we discover a work, incredulous and unable to measure its significance. Victor Hugo "sees nothing", before a real "journey" occurs, an "irruption of the dawn in a universe covered with darkness" experienced as a fulgurance.
1 Octobre 2022 - 15 janvier 2023