The work of Rémy Markowitsch (born in 1957 in Zurich, lives and works in Berlin) often draws on classical literature to evoke the hidden impulses that run through society. The starting point for Juliens Maus is the legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, as recounted by Gustave Flaubert in his Three Tales (1877).
After intentionally killing a small white mouse in church, young Julien is driven by an irrepressible desire to hunt and kill hundreds of animals. But all this cruelty will not prevent him, after a life alternating between savagery and penance, from ascending to heaven.
Inspired by a stained-glass window in Rouen Cathedral, Flaubert’s tale dissects the notions of sin, remorse, and redemption, suggesting a dual reading—Christ-like and erotic. The artist’s sculpture and its accompanying video, accessible via QR code and projected in the Vauban Tower, draw on these powerful evocations to canonize Julien’s first victim, the little white mouse.
