This Muslim sculptor created the sign of the Notre-Dame de Moulins chapel in Lille

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What is it?the Notre-Dame de Moulins chapel? We are in the Moulins district in Lille . This is where 4 Dominican brothers have lived for 45 years, and more precisely since 2013 at 60 rue de Condé. A new wooden sign signals this simple, radiant and fraternal presence, installed on December 23, 2024. The author is a sculptor from Lille, Chouki Derrouiche, a Muslim who befriendedwith the Dominicans. We contacted him.

For 40 years in this neighborhood

If you pass through the Moulins district, rue de Condé, you may have seen this new carved wooden sign, called “Chapelle Notre-Dame de Moulins”. It was inaugurated and blessed in 2016. Its particularity? It is located in the garden of a house open to the neighborhood where Dominican brothers have lived since 2013. Previously, they had been in this same neighborhood since 1978, a few hundred meters away, rue de Wattignies. The block was razed for unsanitary conditions but the brothers wanted to stay in the same neighborhood.

Inter-religious in the soul

The creator of the sign is a sculptor based in Lille and Roubaix, Chouki Derrouiche. And it is no coincidence that he was the one chosen for this project: he has known the Dominican community since the early 2000s. “And for several months I have been part of their monthly inter-religious meeting group “.

Chouki Derrouiche is Muslim, and he is passionate about all religious traditions. “I fell into the pot of inter-religion in the Paris region in the 90s. I was 22 years old. It fascinated me to discover that others were also seeking wisdom, that we were all called to this spiritual elevation. I remember during a conference, a priest and an imam showed the similarities between the Our Father and the first surah of the Koran.

From there, he puts his art at the service of this inter-religion. He even decided to make a sculpture of the text of the Our Father in Aramaic!

“Following my appearance on France2 in the Lord's Day a few years ago, the museum of Jewish memory in Béziers contacted me to create 3 sculptures: the Our Father in Aramaic, a verse from the Koran in Arabic and the 10 commandments in Hebrew! »

Inspired by the Palatine Chapel in Palermo

For the Dominican convent project in Lille, he was inspired by a ceiling of a famous Italian church: the Palatine Chapel in Palermo! “It’s a bit of a UFO, with its influences of Muslim art mixed with Christian icons.” Exactly what fascinates our artist.

In Islam, the square represents the earth; the circle, the sky. The octagon acts as an airlock, a bridge between the two.

The carved beech top is 2.40 m long, 45 cm wide, 45 mm thick and weighs 25 kg. In engraved decoration, we can spot stars, octagonal shapes and crosses, in 3 rows. “Between two lines of octagons, eleven crosses are sculpted,” says the artist.

A beautiful work full of delicacy and meaning, in this Moulins district marked by multiculturalism.

The Notre-Dame-de-Moulins chapel in Lille is open every day from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Information on masses here.

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