Leïla Slimani's Museum Night at Punta della Dogana Inspires Book on Art and Identity

Leïla Slimani, a Franco-Moroccan author and Goncourt Prize winner for 'Canción dulce', spent a night in December 2018 at the Punta della Dogana museum in Venice, an experience that led to her book 'El perfume de las flores de noche'. Invited to participate in a nocturnal residency, Slimani initially hesitated but accepted with encouragement from her agent. Unlike writer Andrea Marcolongo, who reflected on Greek art looting during a night at the Acropolis Museum, Slimani expresses distance from the contemporary art housed at Punta della Dogana, finding the works neutral and the space elitist. Her text explores why museums feel alien to her, delving into her childhood in Morocco, memories of her father—a cultural mentor declared innocent in a trial that damaged his health—and her use of fiction to reinvent oneself and find home in writing. The narrative is shaped by her experiences as a Moroccan in France and a French person in Morocco, mirroring Venice's history between East and West. Slimani views writing as a no-man's-land, offering no fixed identity, a theme central to her reflections. The Museo del Prado began a residency program for international authors three years ago, which Slimani recently joined, highlighting a trend of writers engaging with museums through such initiatives.