news | action | information | events | contact | search | news | action | information | events | contact | search |
key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lChirac plan to visit AustraliaBy Stephen Dabkowski Paris 18 December 2002 - Jacques Chirac is expected to become the first French president to visit Australia next year - possibly on a mission to gather Aboriginal art. French Government sources said Mr Chirac had placed Australia on an agenda to tour the Pacific next year. Part of Mr Chirac's visit to Australia is likely to be cultural in nature. Mr Chirac is the driving force of a new museum to be opened in Paris in 2004, which will show indigenous art from around the world, including Australian Aboriginal art. The new museum, The Musee du quai Branly, is in the early stages of construction in one of the most historic sites in Paris - between the river Seine and the Eiffel Tower. Its architect, Jean Nouvel, has decided that Australian Aboriginal art should dominate the building's entrance. The plan is for five canvasses containing Australian Aboriginal art to grace the various ceilings of the entrance building and be illuminated so they are visible from the street day and night. In total, 1332 metres of canvas will need to be shipped to Australia and painted by indigenous artists. The director-general of the museum, Stephane Martin, said Mr Chirac had shown a strong interest in indigenous art and although he had not visited Australia, the President had been a keen observer of Australian art. "We want to have this spectacular and permanent presence of Australian Aboriginal art in Paris," he said. Mr Martin estimated that when the museum was opened it would be the largest single display of Aboriginal art in Europe - if not anywhere outside Australia. Source:The Sydney Morning Herald From the Musee du quai Branly websiteGenesis Non-Western arts acquired a crucial place in museum collections in the course of the 20th century. This was achieved thanks to Fauvist and Cubist artists, under the influence of writers and critics, from Apollinaire to Malraux, and also to research work carried out by leading anthropologists, such as Claude Levi-Strauss. A great ambition – to officially recognize the rightful place of these civilizations, together with the heritage of peoples who are sometimes forgotten, in the present culture of the world – was fulfilled by adopting two ideas. The first was to open in Paris in 2005 a museum dedicated to the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, offering a broad view ranging from ethnology to art history. The second, and parallel, idea was to open galleries in the Louvre in 2000 to exhibit sculptures from these regions of the world. Launched under the patronage of UNESCO, the project for the Musée du Quai Branly was enthusiastically received by thousands of visitors who have already seen its annex, the Pavillon des Sessions, at the Louvre. Project challenges and ambitions The creation of a new museum on one of the last remaining available sites in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine, is an opportunity to develop an original project with an architectural concept that meets all the demands of image, identity, harmony with the urban environment and functional requirements. As most of the great international institutions are having to come to terms with the need to move beyond the heritage of the West's earliest contacts with other cultures and abandon the post-colonial vision, this new museum will offer a ground-breaking new conception in terms of scientific equipment, organisation and the collections on show to the public. The aim of the project is to respond to the diversity of audiences, to create a synergy of activities, to originate a new practice of international relations, to make outstanding collections accessible, to offer a resource, research and training centre, to provide a forum for the expression of living cultures, to incorporate mobility, to organise the appropriate technical and administrative infrastructure. International Cooperation Many governments, collections and institutions have shown their support for the Musée du Quai Branly by lending some of their masterpieces to be exhibited temporarily in the Louvre galleries. A policy of mutual aid and scientific cooperation is being developed with the countries of origin of these works. The Musée du Quai Branly will be open to researchers from all over the world and will also carry out field operations to safeguard and preserve cultural heritage.
related links :
|
a new |
|
