The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris boasts of an excellent and extensive collection of from different cultures, giving valuable insights into them. Those permanent and temporary collections in the great museum are original art, from Africa, South America, and Asia. The collections conserve about 370,000 works of art that display the cultural diversity of non-European civilizations from the Neolithic period till the 20th century. The non-European collections gradually accumulated in private collections because of the colonial expansion and economic development during the 18th century. The national museums were created following the French Revolution, and those ethnographic collections were transferred to the museums for display. Major African collections were added to the Parisian collections as the colonial conquests enhanced during the 19th century. The musée du Quai Branly opened in 2006 and inherited collections from the musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie” and the “musée de l'Homme” and has become one of the richest European public institutions that promote non-European civilizations and art (History of the Collections 2016). Jacques Kerchache, a cultural adviser to Jacques Chirac, the well-known politician, played an instrumental in introducing African and tribal art to the Louvre. The collecting expeditions of the passionate connoisseur began at an early age. The art dealer and collector was known to a limited number of collectors in Paris before he met Chirac (Palermo 10). His reputation questioned the boundaries between the collectors and the creators. The way he described his collections or touched them, it seemed as if he was the sculptor or the painter himself (Palermo 16). However serval thoughts and questions develop as most of the collection has been acquired under doubtful circumstances and displayed according to Western ideas of artistic beauty. The thought leads to some more issues and doubts.
Is it better to have those objects on display in one place in a major city where people from all over the world will see them than to disperse them?
The Musée du Quai Branly is majorly about the "Arts and Civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas," and thus it is about “the others” as these are not European civilizations. The representation of those artifacts is based on the viewpoints of French nation-state that is facing a globalized world. The notion of the nation-state in the eighteenth century is associated with democracy and museums were seen as a window of the nation displaying its treasures and adding to its pride. (Guichard-Marneur 9). It would be better to have objects on display in Musée du Quai Branly not in just one major city but several cities so that they are able to reach out to more cultures and societies. However, given their immense value and sensitive nature, it would be risky to display those Masterpieces of primitive art in any other major city. Moreover, the Museums in France operate under the strict rules of the State as asserted by Palermo (23) and are considered institutions of the state that keep a tight control over the Museum curators. What makes Quai Branly different from its peers is a large number of temporary exhibitions it organizes each year and how it collaborates with curators from outside the museum world (Grey 2016). The majority of those shows are devised by outside curators who are often from abroad. This reflects that French museum are very comfortable traditionally. The museum is full of fantastic masks and artifacts from indigenous societies. However, the displays in Musée du Quai Branly carry descriptions in French and would help if it includes indigenous people from the cultures whose works are represented. For example, it can encourage museum curators from Africa, South America and Asia, the continents where the collections are rooted to. Musée du Quai Branly carries collections that span from 300 BC to the present and obtained from diverse sources such as other museums and private collections. The roots of these collections are tied closely to France's colonial past. What makes an artwork valuable is when it is has a price in the market and when museums house them in their displays (Blasselle and Guarneri 2016). The interiors of the museum display a wordplay in French that means "the Other in Itself/in Oneself" that reminds the visitors that they are entering some “other “world. The exhibit spaces contrast between earth-toned walls and transparencies. However, somehow the colonialism and aesthetic modernism fail to go hand in hand. The vision of the "Other" does pose problems for a museum as it reflects a racist ideology. The objects in the permanent collection are presented anonymously and ahistorically, and some have no apparent timeline. Those collections and the way they are displayed add to the criticism of the museum.
What can be said is that the same model itself plagues the Quai Branly that began as a French Republican model. It faces difficulty is recognizing its colonial past and integrating cultural diversity. The museum can play an important role in fighting against racial intolerance in France. However, before that, France needs to cultivate feelings of respect for that distant "Other" that it proudly showcases in its museum.
If displaying the objects so that Western viewers can appreciate their beauty and the artist's skill raises respect for non-Western cultures, does that make the display strategy acceptable?
How might the museum's practices change if the staff were to include indigenous people from the cultures whose works are represented?By displaying the objects so that Western viewers can appreciate the artist's skills and beauty does not limit any respect for non-Western cultures, but it does raise doubts over the display strategy. Those treasures of past in Musée du Quai Branly came to France because of a sensitive colonial time and unequal power relations. By displaying artwork that is majorly of “others”, the representation of national identity does get challenged here as 'Frenchness' should be experienced symbolically (Guichard-Marneur 11). Despite the ambiguity and criticism, the France is trying to create bridges and recognizes its responsibilities towards those “other “cultures and non-Western countries. It is essential to make clear connections between the visitors and the goals of the Musée du Quai Branly. It is essential to look into as to who goes to the museum and is it just the Westerner or Europeans or people from other countries? It is essential to enact policies of public outreach and make people aware of the museum. It should not be only the white bourgeois who makes a visit to the museum. It should be a center of cultural pride and not just limited to national. The societies and cultures on display in the Quai Branly should also get a chance to look in their past, and the museums need to reach out to those minority group (Blasselle and Guarneri 2016). There should be a more meaningful dialogue with people of African and Asian descent. Ethnic pride and identity are the prime issues that arise with Quai Branly, which needs to create a more creative approach towards immigrants and minorities through collaboration with other museums.
Works Cited
Blasselle, Agnès and Guarneri Anna. "The Opening of the Musée du Quai Branly: Valuing/Displaying the "Other" in Post-Colonial France." humanityinaction. 2016. Web. 30 May. 2016.
Guichard-Marneur, Maud. "Does the Musée du Quai Branly project tell more about the collection it houses or about France?" University of Göteborg 1.1 (2006): 1-21. Print
Grey, Tobias. "Quai Branly: Paris’s musée de la différence." ft.com. 2016. Web. 30 May. 2016.
"History of the Collections." quaibranly.fr. 2016. Web. 30 May. 2016.
Palermo, S. "Paris Primitive: Jacques Chirac's Museum on the Quai Branly." University of Chicago Press 1.1 (2007): 1-239. Print
