Stone Reveries: A Visit Between Poetry and Imagination
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What if we start the year by letting our imagination run wild? This is what the exhibition Dreams of Stones: Poetry and Minerals by Roger Caillois proposes. On display until March 29, 2026, at the École des Arts Joailliers Van Cleef & Arpels, in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History in Paris, the installation unveils to the public a collection of the most fascinating items. Combining treasures of nature with poetic thoughts, it offers an enchanting visit where landscapes reveal themselves at the heart of the stones and enter into dialogue with the collector’s words.
The exhibition that teaches us to observe and imagine
Between landscape, face, silhouette, or three-dimensional sculpture, the minerals presented at the Dreams of Stones exhibition become narrators in their own right. Displayed as works of art, these pieces reveal well-guarded secrets, ready to play with our imagination.
Indeed, their cuts, made spontaneously, reveal rich inner worlds of colors, patterns, transparency effects, marks of time, and other molecular mixes. These treasures of nature resemble paintings here, ready to whisper a story to us if we take the time to observe them closely. And that is what the author and collector Roger Caillois did.
Where the exhibition Dreams of Stones stands out is through the poetry and imagination that it integrates. Indeed, alongside the minerals, the words of Roger Caillois are revealed.
Letting his thoughts flow through ink, his prose excerpts describe the landscapes he traversed while observing his stones, the characters he encountered, the emotions that accompanied his discoveries, and the memories and other thoughts that were also linked to them.
“Paradoxes,” “Wounds,” “Monsters and Specters,” “Nature as Painter,” “Writings and Crossings Out,” “Secret Sculptures,” “Pseudo-Torso”… Here are some of the themes through which his stones express themselves. Thus, our visit presents itself as a journey between the real and the imaginary, rocked by the exceptional, almost unreal creations designed by nature.
For our part, we were captivated by the spectacle unfolding before our eyes. And we felt very privileged to observe this collection, not filled with the most precious gems in the world, but with minerals containing visual stories, of which some have been little, if ever, exhibited to the public.
Between the discovery of the landscape marbles of Tuscany (paésines), the starry patterns of the septarians, bits of nature encapsulated in dendrites and other triangular, circular, or more abstract and sculptural forms contained within onyx, jaspers, or agates… The wonder only grows throughout the visit, as these forms and creations seem to belong to another world and remind us how magical nature is.
From collector to dreamer, a journey that initiated the exhibition Dreams of Stones
This collection, composed between 1952 and 1978, is part of Roger Caillois’s desire to question the link between nature and art, but also the origins of these treasures and their relationship with humanity. An exercise that nourished his thought and gradually invited him to move away from a simple encyclopedic approach to developing a poetic writing that became even dreamlike as he made his discoveries.
These stones and minerals, which have been supports for understanding eras and civilizations, regions of the world, thoughts, and cultures, have also served as levers for the elevation of thought. Notably, regarding the reading of these pieces by Roger Caillois. From his early writings, drafted with a collector’s eye, it is towards a more spiritual and mystical thought that his later words have directed themselves.
From simple aesthetic limestone pieces to elements with lithotherapeutic powers, it is quite fascinating to observe the evolution of the thought process of this sociologist, writer, and natural sciences enthusiast in relation to these stones he called his “crossroads objects” or “fairy objects”.
Thus, it is with a dreamy spirit and the impression of having traveled that we left our visit. Both interesting for the discovery of this author and the various information provided regarding the minerals, the exhibition will enchant young and old alike with its displayed pieces and the dialogue it creates.
This visit will leave you on a little cloud and invite you to reconnect with your imagination, looking at the world around you with a gaze full of candor.
The exhibition Dreams of Stones: Poetry and Minerals by Roger Caillois is presented at the School of Jewelry Arts until March 29, 2026. Admission is free, but it is recommended to book in advance as there are limited spots. Guided tours are also organized.
