Jean Nouvel dresses up a prestigious collection at the Quai Branly Museum with magic

In this museum of "primitive arts" wanted by Jacques Chirac, whose founder of the Fimalac group was close, 36 rare works have been installed in a gallery overlooking the permanent exhibition rooms on the mezzanine. This collection had already been the subject of an exhibition in 2016 at Quai Branly.

The inauguration was scheduled for last fall before being postponed due to the Covid-19.

Bathed in chiaroscuro, it is an experience of contemplation that awaits the visitor. On plinths covered with wood, elegant translucent PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate, a kind of plexiglass) envelopes surround the most beautiful works, following their shapes while letting them breathe. At human height, you can walk around them, which allows you to better penetrate the mystery of their meaning, behind the subtle play of reflections.

The concept of "aura" is defined according to the dictionaries as "the spiritual atmosphere", "the resonance of a work" or "the emanation surrounding a being". It is all of this at the same time that surrounds these objects, each one charged with a meaning - religious, social, natural - which has been lost. The "aura" lets them vibrate instead of locking them behind a glass partition as in a traditional exhibition.

According to Jean Nouvel, it is as if "the protection (the plexiglass) was moved by the fascination that the statues exert on it".

For the president of the museum, Emmanuel Kasarhérou, "this halo principle constitutes an authentic technical feat and a world first. It marks a new age of museography which gives way to the work in all its physical and spiritual dimensions, in reverse of certain all-digital mirages ".

"It took a mechanism of incredible complexity to install the statues in these showcases. Without anything being seen! The showcase holds on itself", underlines, admiringly, Mr. Kasarhérou.

The 2008 Pritzker Prize, of which the creation of this museum on the banks of the Seine is a flagship work, explains its conception of this new space: "the works of art are there to inhabit a place, and the place must become a kind of balcony for them".

Breath search

The genius of Jean Nouvel "was to give up the parallelepipedic display case in favor of a breath that takes up the main forms of each work", underlines Yves Le Fur, director of the museum's collections, who has found a place for each "aura. ".

"The breath of life is a very strong concept in African culture", underlines Mr. Le Fur.

Masterpieces inhabited by strong symbolism are thus in majesty, like a magnificent "Seated Maternity Sénoufo", recovered long ago in Ivory Coast.

Much attention was also paid to the contextualization of the works, a priority for the new president of the museum born in New Caledonia: accessible with QRcodes, focuses are offered with historical landmarks.

Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière began to collect this collection in 2005. He explains that he wanted her "not to be cut to pieces in auction houses" when he died. "Jacques Chirac, he confided, who made me gradually give up my Western corset bottle-fed with classical arts, would be happy to be there today!".

His donation, made in 2018, is the largest of African and Oceanic works of art since 1945, worth more than 50 million euros. It will also finance temporary exhibitions for five years, to the tune of 200.000 euros per year.