Agenda

EXHIBITION

AFRICAN ROADS
31/01/17 – 12/11/17
West Mezzanine

From the beginnings of mankind, Africa has always traded with other continents. It has not only supplied its labour force, its gold and its raw materials for thousands of years, but also its skills and constantly remodeled cultures. Its history is part of the global dynamic. A panorama of a continent at the crossroads of worlds, going against received ideas. Panorama of a continent at the crossroads of different worlds, a counter-current to received ideas.

Africa, a continent without a History? Although the preconceptions persist, the facts themselves are undeniable: Africans have never lived in isolation. Although ignored for a long time, exchanges within Africa, and outside it, began thousands of years ago, well before the arrival of the first Portuguese ships at the end of the 15^th century, colonisation and independences. This is demonstrated in the sculptures, gold and ivory pieces, paintings and other artworks presented in the AFRICAN ROADS exhibition.

From the 5^th millennium before our age until now, this exhibition evokes the routes by river, land and sea that contributed to the movement and contact of men, materials and artworks. Ranging from the cave art of the Sahara to the Chinese porcelain of Madagascar, from the Candomblé cults and rituals of South America to the contemporary mixed art of the Nigerian Yinka Shonibare, it presents a portrait of a continent at the centre of world history.

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EXHIBITION

PICASSO PRIMITIVE
28/03/17 – 23/07/17
Garden Gallery

The question of Picasso and non-western arts has been addressed on many occasions. This exhibition will not be yet another juxtaposition exploring hypothetical proofs of inspiration. It is organised into two complementary approaches revealing the relationship between Picasso and the arts of Africa, Oceania, the Americas and Asia.

The first is a direct chronological and historical approach, showing all the recognised milestones through which Picasso maintained a relationship with non-western arts, not only during the decisive period of the gestation of the Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1906 – 1907, but also, as his own lifelong collection shows, throughout his creative career. Documents, letters, objects and photographs examine, with a very exact chronology, what he really saw, the circles of art dealers and collectors he frequented, the exhibitions he visited, and those to which he lent his own works.

This second approach, which occupies the majority of the space in the exhibition, is more conceptual. It creates a dialogue between the extraordinary richness of Picasso’s works – not only the major works but also those where he experimented with aesthetic concepts – and those, no less rich, of nonwestern artists. It is based more on an anthropology of art than on observing aesthetic relationships. Three sections, “Archaism”, “Metamorphosis” and “That” develop the issues to which artists have responded with parallel visual solutions. Primitive art, therefore, is no longer considered to be a stage of non-development, but rather an access to the deepest, the most fundamental layers of the human being.

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EXHIBITION

ECLECTIC, A 21^st Century Collection
Until 02/04/17
East Mezzanine

Following the exhibitions D’UN REGARD L’AUTRE (2006), CHARLES RATTON, L’invention des arts primitifs (2013), and before PICASSO PRIMITIVE (2017) and FÉLIX FÉNÉON (2018), the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, proposes through the exhibition ECLECTIC, A 21^st Century Collection to continue reflecting on the history of collecting, as well as on the place of so-called “primitive” arts in the history of art.

Through more than 60 masterpieces – African and Oceanian art as well as major classical, modern, contemporary, historical or rare works – the exhibition aims to outline the history of the collection of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, as well as the private aspects of the collector’s relationship with it. The exhibition illustrates the impulses and motivations of a collector of the 21^st century with regard to the primitive arts, in this new way of recognising these arts.

This exhibition is an opportunity to come back on the numerous important moments of the creation of this collection: the interest for antique civilisations, for Orient or for the Mediterranean basin, the interest for the evolution toward abstraction, stylization, minimalism, “outsider art”, and extra-occidental arts, in an attentive development for human form of naturalism to stylization.

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EVENT

ETHNOLOGY WILL SURPRISE YOU!
TWO DAYS TO EXPLORE THE 21^st CENTURY
Saturday 11/03 and sunday 12/03/17

Since 2013, the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac has been offering a weekend devoted to ethnology, designed for all audiences. Over two days, with free access and free entry, each edition attracts almost 18,000 visitors who can enjoy concerts, debates, films, readings and special tours.

Based on fieldwork as well as on historical and archaeological archives, ethnology brings out the greatest models for understanding life in societies. The rapid developments in science allow a better understanding of the diversity of societies and of the issues of living together, by means of the different models it analyses.

Renowned researchers, young ethnologists and anthropologists come together at this event in interactive conferences, screenings of ethnographic films, fieldwork investigations and commentaries on artworks. There are many approaches providing a better understanding of the diversity of societies, the complexity and variety of cultural forms in the world. And by highlighting its place in our contemporary societies, there are many opportunities to make a wide audience, from the very youngest age, aware of this discipline.

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PERFORMING ARTS

PHUPHUMA LOVE MINUS
Isicathamiya male Choir
South Africa
Saturday 25/03, 8 pm; Sunday 26/03, 5 pm;
Thursday 30/03, 8 pm; Friday 31/03, 8 pm;
Saturday 01/04, 8 pm; Sunday 02/04/17, 5 pm
Claude Lévi-Strauss Theatre

On their tiptoes in their shiny polished shoes, wearing their elegant close-fitting suits and white gloves, eleven men perform the slow and muted dance that accompanies the isicathamiya. This a cappella singing, typical of Zulu culture, where the choir responds to the leader’s singing with a soft and powerful harmony, came out of the Johannesburg townships in the last century.

The Phuphuma Love Minus choir, discovered by the South African choreographer Robyn Orlin, who wrote the play “Walking next to our shoes…” in 2009 based on their performance, now brings the popular culture of migrant workers to the whole world. While singing, the choir performs slow, fluid gestures exactly coordinated with the movements of their feet as they slide delicately across the floor. The name isicathamiya comes from this particular dance: its Zulu root – cathama – meaning “to walk furtively”, like a cat. In the 1970s and 1980s, isicathamiya reached the height of its popularity on the southern African music scene. Paul Simon, who invited the Ladysmith Black Mambazo choir to record on the legendary “Graceland” album (1986), brought world recognition to this form of music.

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EXHIBITION ABROAD

TATTOO
Until 30/04/17
The Field Museum, Chicago (U.S.A.)

The exhibition TATTOO began its international tour at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, after being presented with great success at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (2014-2015), where more than 700.000 visitors were able to discover the artistic dimension of tattoos, as well as their history through all cultures since the first evidence of their existence. TATTOO pursues its international tour at the Field Museum of Chicago.

In the so-called “primitive” societies of the East, Africa and Oceania, tattooing has a social, religious and mystical role, and is part of an individual’s rites of passage, including them in the community. Conversely, in the West, it was once a mark of disgrace, criminality or was a circus attraction (a sideshow phenomenon), later becoming an identifying mark for urban tribes. By bringing together at the Field Museum over 180 historical and contemporary artworks from around the globe, the exhibition explores the world of tattoos, and presents a totally new approach to this ancestral practice by examining the sources and renewal of this now permanent and globalised phenomenon.

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MUSEUM LIFE

RESTORATION OF MASTERPIECES TO DISCOVER IN THE EXHIBITION PICASSO PRIMITIVE

As part of the exhibition PICASSO PRIMITIVE (presented at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac from 28/03/17 to 23/07/17), a restoration campaign gives back to four major pieces – a Marquesas island monumental tiki made of stone, an Abelam lintel made of polychrome wood, an American head-shaped vase and an African magical statue – their original magnificence, thanks to the know-hows and restoration technics of the conservators of the musée.

This kongo magical statue is from Central Africa (dated before 1892) and represents a figure covered of nails, humpbacked, and with one leg. This object is a typical ethnographic subject because it is made of various composite materials: wood, plant fibers, feathers, metal, kaolin… For the restoration of this piece, a dust extraction operation was set up. The movable arm of the statue and its colorful layer were consolidated thanks to a collage with sturgeon glue.

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