THE MUSÉE DU QUAI BRANLY –JACQUES CHIRAC 10 YEARS ON.
IMAGINING THE MUSEUM OF TOMORROW THURSDAY 29 AND FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2016
Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss
What was the project of the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac? How was it implemented, and how has it evolved? How does it affect museum conceptions in other parts of the world, and how has it changed conservation and research practices?
This international conference looks back at the museum’s history since its opening, focusing especially on the issues it has faced during this period. It will examine the museum’s exhibition policy, the place of research and its connection with the museum’s collections, the methods and stakes of its relationship with audiences, and finally, the challenges presented by the evolution of relationships between museum institutions and the communities from which the objects originate.
The conference is not intended as an overview of the museum’s legacy, and even less as a pretext for self- celebration. Instead, it looks at the museum’s place in a landscape of art and anthropology museums which has undergone deep transformation in the last fifteen years.
The contributors will attempt to identify the role played by the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac as an object of reflection and criticism for institutions around it.
Without claiming to cover everything, this conference will bring together major witnesses of the museum’s genesis and construction, people who work in its different sectors, researchers and observers from here and further afield, and representatives of the audiences and communities concerned by the museum and its collections. Rather than a string of speeches, the conference sessions will take the form of either round tables or discussions between two or three speakers, reacting to questions from informed facilitators and the audience. Its ultimate aim is to consider and imagine the museum of tomorrow.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: Anne-Christine Taylor (CNRS), Frédéric Keck, Yves Le Fur, Emmanuel Kasarherou, Eléonore Kissel, Julien Clément, Jessica De Largy Healy (musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac ), Nathan Schlanger (École nationale des Chartes), Thierry Dufrêne (Institut national d’histoire de l’art).
COORDINATION: Anna Gianotti Laban, musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, anl@quaibranly.fr
THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER MORNING
1 - THE MUSÉE DU QUAI BRANLY PROJECT, ITS IMPLEMENTATION AND ITS EVOLUTION
This first day will be the chance for a critical review of the Museum’s major directions:
what type of institution did we want to create, what was the intended exhibition and research policy, and what were the underlying rationales? Which of the choices made in or before 2006 have stood the test of time, and which have been adjusted or
abandoned?
09:15 Arrival of participants
9:30 Welcoming remarks: Stéphane MARTIN, President of the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
09:45 – 10:45
The Project Put to the Test
Stéphane MARTIN, President of the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Steven ENGELSMAN, Director the of Weltmuseum, Vienna
10:30 – 10:45 Debate with the audience
10:45 – 11:45
Exhibiting Non-Western Arts in Paris: New Contexts, New Concepts.
Germain VIATTE, Museum Curator, former scientific advisor to the President of the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac ,
Yves LE FUR, Director of the Heritage and Collections Department, musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
11:15 – 11:45 Debate with the audience 11:45 – 12:00 Coffee break
12:00 – 13:00 Round table: The Temporary Exhibitions Policy and the Place Given to Curators Outside/external to the Institution.
Facilitator: Hélène FULGENCE, Director of Cultural Development, musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Philippe DESCOLA, anthropologist at the Collège de France, curator of ‘The Making of Images’ exhibition, Lilian THURAM, President of the Foundation Education against racism, general curator of the ‘Human Zoos’ exhibition, Roger BOULAY, ethnologist, curator of the 2008 ‘The Aristocrat and his Cannibals’ exhibition,
‘Tarzan’ and “Kanak” exhibitions
AFTERNOON
2. THE ROLE OF RESEARCH AT THE MUSÉE DU QUAI BRANLY AND IN OTHER MUSEUMS.
Based on an analysis of the musée du quai Branly’s choices in this domain, we will debate the specificities of research in museums, and the methods for connecting the research that they produce or conduct with that developed in higher education or professional training establishments and in amateur circles.
14:30 – 15:30
Research at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Maurice GODELIER, Anthropologist, Director of Studies at EHESS, former Scientific Director at the musée du quai Branly– Jacques Chirac
Anne-Christine TAYLOR, anthropologist, CNRS, former Director of the Research and Education Department at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
15:30 – 16:30 Round Table: Museums as Places of Research
Session leader / facilitator: Frédéric KECK, Director of the Research and Education Department at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
André DELPUECH, General Heritage Curator, Head of the Americas Collections Heritage Unit at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Denis CHEVALLIER, General Curator, Head of the Research and Education Department, MUCEM
Anne-Solène ROLLAND, Research and Collections Department Director at the Louvre
Guillaume LECOINTRE, Director of the Systematics and Evolution Department at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
16:30 – 16:45 Coffee break
16:45 – 17:45 Round Table: The Materiality of Collections: Archival Forms and Practices
Facilitator: Eléonore KISSEL, Head of the Conservation and Restoration Centre at the musée du quai Branly– Jacques Chirac
Philippe PELTIER, General Heritage Curator, Head of the Oceania-Insulindia Collections Heritage Unit at the musée du quai Branly -Jacques Chirac Christine BARTHE, Head of the Photographic Collections Heritage Unit at the musée du quai Branly– Jacques Chirac
Christophe MOULHERAT, analyst and textiles expert at the musée du quai Branly–
Jacques Chirac
Dan HICKS, Associate Professor and Curator, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
Wayne MODEST, Director of the Research Center for Material Culture, Leyden.
FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 3. “THE BRANLY EFFECT”
9:30 – 11:00
Has the musée du quai Branly positively or negatively influenced the design of new museums or the renovation of old museums? Have its museographical choices been followed or avoided elsewhere? International overview
Facilitator: Anita HERLE, Senior Curator, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
Boris WASTIAU, Director of the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva
Guido GRYSEELS, Director of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren) Hamady BOCOUM, Director of the Black Civilisations Museum, Dakar Friedrich VON BOSE, Cultural anthropologist, University of Basel 11:00 – 11:15 Discussion with the audience.
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break
4. NEW TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS WITH AUDIENCES
How do we interact with the museum-going public and deal with their demands, their indifference, or perhaps even their hostility? Should we take the museum outside of its walls to attract new audiences, and how? How does the rise of new communication technologies change current or developing mediation practices in museums?
11:30 -12:45
Facilitator: Vincent POUSSOU, Head of visitor services and digital department, Réunion des musées nationaux, Grand Palais.
Jacqueline EIDELMAN, General Heritage Curator, HDR (accredited research supervisor),French National Heritage Department
Gaëlle BEAUJEAN-BALTZER, Head of African Collections at the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac
Sébastien MAGRO, Deputy Head for Digital Development Department at the musée du quai Branly– Jacques Chirac
Charlotte FESNEAU, Head of education and visitors services, musée du quai Branly– Jacques Chirac
12:45 – 13:00 Discussion with the audience 13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break
4. CULTURAL DIALOGUE AND CIRCULATION OF WORKS
Today, museums, or their governing bodies, are no longer the sole decision-makers about what happens to the works in their collections and how they are presented: they must contend with the requests of the source communities or those who claim to represent them. How do we negotiate solutions to the contradictory demands of museums, with their universalising ambitions, and of communities seeking recognition or greater justice in the distribution and circulation of works?
15:00 – 16:45
Facilitator: Emmanuel KASARHEROU, Deputy director of Heritage and Collections. Head of the Scientific Coordination of Collections, musée du quai Branly– Jacques Chirac
Gaye SCULTHORPE, Curator and Section Head of Oceania, British Museum), Nicholas THOMAS, Director, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge,
Michel COTE, Museologist, former Director of the Musée des Confluences and of the Museum of Civilization, Quebec
Vincent NEGRI, CNRS researcher (Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique – ENS Cachan)
16:45 – 17:15 General discussion 17:15 – 17:30 Coffee break
5. PROSPECTS FOR MUSEUMS IN THE 21ST CENTURY 17:30 – 18:30 “A post-ethnological museum?”
James CLIFFORD, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and Emeritus Professor in the History of Consciousness Department, University of California, Santa Cruz
