Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac

 

Tête sculptée Moaï. 11e -15e siècle. Amérique>Amérique du Sud>Chili>Valparaíso>Pâques (île) [Ahu Vaihu, Hanga Roa (baie de Cook)]. Culture : Pascuans. Tuf volcanique. 180 x 131 x 108 cm, 2350 kg. Acquisition indéterminée : Personne inconnue. Ancienne collection : Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Ancienne collection : Lapelin, François-Théodore de (1812 - 1888). Précédente collection : Musée de l'Homme (Océanie). N° inventaire : 71.1930.35.1. MH - Inventaire : 30.35.1, Objet exposé : MQB, Quai Branly, Hall d'accueil, emplacement hall d'accueil, Usage : Les sculptures moai étaient érigées sur des plates-formes de pierre, le visage face à l'intérieur des terres (celles du bord de mer). Elles commémoraient des ancêtres illustres ou divinisés. Provenance historique : Date et circonstances de collecte : Cette sculpture fut rapportée en 1872 par le contre-amiral Lapelín qui dirigeait l'expédition de « La Flore ››. Pierre Loti participa à cette collecte et réalisa plusieurs dessins de moai in situ. La Flore mouille à Hanga Roa le 3 janvier 1872 au moment où les missionnaires catholiques conduits par le Père Roussel avaient quitté l’île avec leurs ouailles, suite à un désaccord avec Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier (1834-1876) qui avait entrepris de faire reconnaître son épouse polynésienne en tant que reine de l’île de Pâques. Dans l’article qu’il publie dans la Revue maritime et coloniale, 1872, n°35, p.106, François-Théodore de Lapelin précise que Dutrou-Bornier étant également absent, c’est avec le concours de « M. Christian Smith, jeune marin danois, le seul blanc que nous ayons trouvé au milieu de cette population » qu’il conduit l’opération ; et « qu’à défaut d’une statue entière, en bon état de conservation, facilement transportable, nous avons dû nous contenter de détacher la tête d’une statue renversée sur la face, trop lourde pour être transportée entière et qui se trouvait dans un moraï (mieux [sic] marae) près du débarcadère de la mission. ». Enlèvement de la tête le 5 janvier 1872. Voir Loti, 1899, p. 243-245. Provenance historique mise à jour le 13/06/2025, en fonction des informations disponibles.

Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac

37 Quai Branly, 75007 Paris

Visited on Sunday, 22 March 2026

AA: Already the first exhibits take my breath away. A 869 cm high Gitxsan totem pole from British Columbia (see photo below) reaches toward the ceiling. A huge Moaï head from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) sculpted from lava (see photo above) faces us in silent grandeur.

The keyword is awe.

I am instantly in an uncanny power field detached from the urban contemporary reality surrounding us. I am no longer able to focus and wander like a sleepwalker on the spiralling lanes of Musée du Quai Branly.

It becomes immediately my favourite museum in Paris. I had anticipated this, and therefore avoided a visit.

In fact, I knew this would happen. During the 1980s, as a student in West Berlin, living in Dahlem at the Freie Universität campus, I was a regular at the Dahlem Museum Complex, where the Museum für Völkerkunde (today's Ethnologisches Museum) was my favourite in Berlin. It emitted an uncanny radiation to the neighbouring Gemäldegalerie.

My dearest friend from my Berlin days had especially recommended Musée du Quai Branly for us. I have to keep returning if I dare. The visit raises a lot of questions.

The first is about colonialism and repatriation. These museums in Paris, Berlin and everywhere are, among other things, displays of colonial looting and appropriation, and dealing with it is a high priority in the work of cultural patrimony professionals. 

In the cinema, the classic of the field is Les Statues meurent aussi (FR 1953) directed by Chris Marker, Alain Resnais and Ghislain Cloquet. It is a pioneering masterpiece based on an anticolonialist philosophy of history, shot at le Musée de l'Homme, one of the predecessors of Musée du Quai Branly. A kind of a "sequel" is Mati Diop's Dahomey (SN/BJ/FR 2024), a documentary about the journey of repatriation from the Musée du Quai Branly to Benin.

The second question belongs to the category of "children's science questions", the simplest and greatest questions which may be impossible to answer. What are they? What are these objects? To me it is increasingly evident that these objects are not inevitably art. They are more. They are beyond art. Familiar aesthetic categories are meaningless here. These objects may have multiple functions, but often they might be holds, markers, devices, means and instruments of history, identity, culture and patrimony. Many belong to the sphere of the sacred, what we describe with words such as magic, animism and totemism.

I was not surprised to register in Dahomey the movie that there are people in Benin who are disturbed by the repatriation. These objects still cast a powerful spell. They are scary. Even I, who have no idea of their original context, can sense that.

Also a third question is a children's science question. Who are we? In the age of LLMs, superior machine learning and an incredible increase in the power of information technology, many now imagine that we may soon no longer be able to tell the man from the machine. But Joseph Weizenbaum, the creator of the first chatbot in 1966, already realized that that moment will never happen. Because we are a mystery to ourselves and each other. The Museum of Quai Branly is all about that mystery.

In the Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), Werner Herzog entered the Grotte Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc to encounter the oldest known cave drawings, engravings and paintings, dating to 35.000-27.000 BP. What is impressive is their timeless quality. We don't know the meaning and the function of these images, but in a general way we can relate to them and the people who made them.

The fourth question was posed already by the trio Marker & Resnais & Cloquet: if we see these works as art, why are they not in the Louvre, why are they segregated in a ghetto? And if we view them primarily as sacred objects, why are the religious masterpieces of the Quattrocento not here with them?

The questions may be the answers. The meaning of a place like this is to stimulate thought and dialogue on the most profound issues of consciousness and community. 

Associations are stirred. A wall full of masks resonates both with Picasso's Young Ladies of Avignon and Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit.

A time warp into eternity is welcome in our daily life in the instant attention economy.

Mât totem "Kaiget". Fin 19e siècle. Amérique>Amérique du Nord>Canada>British Columbia (province) Culture : Gitxsan. Cèdre rouge. 1451 x 75 x 60 cm, 736000 g. Partie supérieure : 582 cm, 253000 g. Partie inférieure : 869 cm, 4830000 g. Donateur : Seligmann, Kurt (1900 - 1962). Précédente collection : Musée de l'Homme (Amérique) N° inventaire : 71.1992.55.1. MH - Registre des dépôts : D.39.2.1. MH - Inventaire : 992.55.1. Objet exposé : MQB, Quai Branly, Hall d'accueil, emplacement hall d'accueil. Description : Monstre ou géant, Kaiget est l'emblème du clan de la "Maison aux yeux multiples". Ce mât se trouvait en face de la maison du chef (dont le nom était Gédem Skanish) et permettait d'identifier le rang et le clan auxquels il appartenait. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac: Le guide du musée, Edition 2006, the first guide, still the best, 308 pages, superb on every page.

Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques-Chirac: Le guide du musée, Edition 2016, the second guide, the one currently for sale at the museum bookstore. 264 pages, smaller format. Keys to understanding The history of the collection, from the earliest ethnographic missions to the inauguration of the museum in 2006 ; the design of the building and the garden. And, from Gauguin to Apollinaire, painters and writers provide their insights on non-Western art. The collection area Discover the five themes featured at the Musée du Quai Branly - Oceania, Asia, Near East and North Africa, Africa, the Americas - through the major works, techniques and rituals of each civilization. Practical information All the essential information you need to prepare your visit and enjoy all the activities available in this "cultural city".