FRANCE: A new museum celebrating indigenous arts from four continents including South America opens in Paris

A new museum celebrating indigenous arts from four continents, not including Europe, opened to the public in Paris on Friday (June 23), fuelling criticism over France's colonial past. The choice of a name for what is now called the "Musee du Quai Branly" was not an easy one, as any attempt to link it with the objects it was due to display raised polemics over alleged colonial stereotypes behind its creation. At first, organisers thought that the museum's name should be linked to the concept of "primitive arts", as it would be hosting work of arts and traditional objects from indigenous society in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. Criticism forced them to change their mind and simply opt for the name of the street the museum was built on. The opening of the Musee du Quai Branly comes at a time of tension in France over a new controversial immigration bill and after a spread of violence in the country's suburbs which had raised the issue of immigrants' life conditions and racism. Some critics said that the decision of dedicating a new museum to indigenous arts form outside Europe might only contribute to their isolation. Organisers replied by claiming that the museum's purpose was that of making people aware of foreign cultures other than their western one. "This is a kind of city of non-European arts and cultures. It's a place for Europeans and tourists form Paris and France, who are going to visit this museum, to encode the non-European world, the world which wasn't born within the Mediterranean area," said Stephan Martin, president of the Musee du Quai Branly. Behind a flower bed covering its main wall, the museum also features a cinema and a library, in addition to the exhibition venues, where about 3,500 of the over 300,000 objects bought by the Musee du Quai Branly are displayed. Works of art range from African wood statues to South American and Middle-Eastern textiles and include a number of Polynesian masks and sculptures. Amongst them, a Malian androgynous female statue dated between the 10th and the 11th century was nicknamed the Mona Lisa of the museum. The Musee du Quai Branly, built next to the Eiffel Tower in central Paris, cost about 230 million euros and was promoted by France's president Jacques Chiracn after he was first elected in 1995.

ITN Source | June 23, 2006

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