Musée d'Art et de Culture Soufis

The Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO® (MACS MTO®), the first museum dedicated to the art and culture of Sufism, opened in the Paris suburb of Chatou last September. MACS MTO aims to offer a platform for cultural exchange, social interaction, and spiritual discovery. 

Spanning the Achaemenid Empire (6th-4th centuries BCE) to the present day, the museum’s collection includes sculpture, textiles, calligraphy, ceramic and mirror mosaics, and site-specific installations emblematic of Sufi themes and spiritual symbolism. Highlights include a monumental granite kashkūl sculpture—a symbolic vessel representing spiritual emptiness and receptivity—and a collection of khirqa, wool cloaks passed between Sufi masters that embody humility and spiritual transmission. A programme of contemporary art exhibitions, talks, events and workshops, reveals the rich contribution Sufism has made to global art and culture throughout history, from the musical traditions inspired by poets such as Rumi to its impact on architecture.

The Museum is located on the banks of the Seine in the Parisian suburb of Chatou, facing the historic Île des Impressionnistes and housed in a 19th-century mansion. Acclaimed French scenographers Atelier Maciej Fiszer and architects Ducatillion Gimel worked with the museum on planning, development and design, to facilitate its transformation into an accessible and environmentally sustainable cultural space, preserving original features, such as wall and ceiling cornices, mosaic tiling, a Neoclassical pediment and the ultramarine blue of the building’s facade. The Museum includes 600 square metres of exhibition space across three floors as well as a serene garden and an archival research library.

The establishment of the Museum was initiated by the Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi - School of Islamic Sufism. Today, MTO Shahmaghsoudi is an international non-profit organisation with around 150 centres worldwide, spanning six continents. They strive to teach the principles of love, unity, and harmony inherent in Sufism and are characterised by openness to students from all backgrounds.

Eric Delpont, Director of Museum, Institut du Monde Arabe and MACS MTO board member, says:  - “It has been an honour for me to play an advisory role in the establishment of MACS MTO and see it successfully launch in autumn last year. At the heart of this latest exhibition at MACS MTO is an intriguing question about the role that sound plays in the transmission of knowledge. Each artist attempts to respond in their own unique way. The exhibition breathes new life into a selection of pieces from the collection, offering visitors the opportunity to discover them in an unprecedented way through the sense of hearing, and to better grasp their philosophical, spiritual, and aesthetic dimensions. I look forward to seeing these interpretations shed new light on many Sufi objects that I’ve been familiar with and yet continue to reveal new and exciting dimensions.”