This book is part of the French series Ma nuit au musée, in which an author spends a night in a museum of their choice. Jakuta Alikavazovic chose the Louvre, keeping company with the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. For her, this night was a way of reconnecting with her father, who often took her to the museum and always asked: “And you, how would you go about stealing the Mona Lisa?” Through this experience, she reflects on her complex relationship with him—her attempts to distance herself, only to find herself back where it all began. She also offers a poignant meditation on art, questioning the paradox of the Mona Lisa being protected by bulletproof glass while human lives in her homeland are treated as disposable. This is a deeply tender and intimate book, exploring memory, loss, and the value of art.
“I should, I suppose, begin with love. A feeling like a sky inside of us. And, like a sky, ever changing. Love and the shapes we try to give it. To conjure it. To hold it still. To hold it still is to betray it: it moves on, always. The feeling changes, or the shape it took for us. A body, a face, now aged. That tomorrow will no longer exist. Sometimes love lives on, alone.”
Original title : Comme un ciel en nous
Translated from French