A precious and intimate setting. Victorian display cases, thousands of minerals, the hushed silence of a secret museum. And suddenly, street art… Unthinkable? Not here. At the Mineralogy Museum, the ephemeral meets the eternal.

The nocturnal gestures of Parisian street artist Codex Urbanus have discreetly found their way into one of the capital's most refined scientific settings. A delicate collision between two seemingly opposing worlds: the street and the institution, the spray can and the display case, the free line and scholarly rigor. True to his method, the artist respects the material, the place, its history. His chimeras appear as inclusions in the rock, graphic veins emerging between quartz, agates, and crystals.

More than one hundred drawings, paintings, and interventions are hidden in the rooms, like a slow crystallization, leaving the visitor the pleasure of discovery. Mineralogical engravings from the 18th century become the breeding ground for a new family of imaginary invertebrates. The architectural plans of the École des Mines crack under the appearance of fantastic figures. Landscape-stones host miniature drawings, reminiscent of Renaissance cabinets of curiosities. Further on, dendrites are transformed into mineral aquariums, inhabited by aquatic chimeras. The attraction is silent, almost magnetic. The exhibition is experienced like a search: you scrutinize, you approach, you doubt, you find. Even the cryptozoology collection—legendary stones, mythical minerals—reveals itself only to the most attentive visitors. As with street art, you have to know how to look to see.

60 bd Saint-Michel, 75006 - RER B (Luxembourg)
Tue. 10am-12pm and 1:30pm-6pm. Wed., Thu., Fri. 1:30pm-6pm. Sat. 10am-12:30pm and 2pm-5pm. Closed Mon. and Sun.