Interior of Musée du quai Branly - with lights full on

Interior of Musée du quai Branly – with lights full on


Image by mke1963
…and flash….and by a window…..and with ASA3200

Art is close to the heart of every French person, and it is an imperative in France that everything is presented aesthetically: food, cars, packaging, architecture, gardens, drink, electronics. The beauty of France has always been the beauty. The downside is that practicality and function comes a very poor second, but still the nation that gave us Concorde, Versailles, Monet and the Citroen D6 survives. In recent years, France has provided the world with very little of the latest technologies; few other people consider beauty over function. Believe me, if Windows had been invented by the French it would have taken five hours to boot up your PC, but it would also have retuned your TV, parked your car and walked the dog in the meantime. But sometimes, aesthetics can simply go too far and practicality is not just relegated but eliminated. Perhaps the best example is in the brand new Musée du quai Branly, which is an architectural masterpiece on the outside but useless on the inside. I can hardly think of a good word to say about this museum, which is particularly sad as it is perhaps the museum I would most love to love. The arts of Africa, Asia and Oceania particularly interest me, and it should have been the highlight of my annual holiday.

On the bright side, at least the French can be congratulated for creating the first museum in the world that is easier for blind people to navigate than those with full vision, thanks to the multitude of braille panels. In short, much of the collection is mediocre, the lighting makes it physically impossible to read any of the sparse text (in small black print on a dark brown background), with seemingly no sense of order of any kind and poor maps and signposting. If you find anything of interest, it is largely by accident.

In a New York Times article, "For a New Paris Museum, Jean Nouvel Creates His Own Rules", journalist Nicolai Ouroussoff provides a more upbeat review, but then maybe he visited when the lights were switched on. Some of the political issues surrounding the collections at the Branly are aired here by a former Minister of Culture and Tourism of Mali (scroll down for it), while the Australian Art Review gushes – possibly without ever having visited the place.

The central feature is a 'tower of musical instruments' from around the world, and the guide book crows about this marvel. It seems to have escaped their attention that the musical instruments are stacked on shelves, four metres from you, behind glass. If I want to see musical instruments in that fashion, I can watch a TV programme with the sound turned off and stand in the garden looking in.

Much of the main floor is divided up by odd walls made of dark brown carbon-fibre: it's like having an art gallery in some kind of giant model of an intestinal tract. Sprinkled along these wall are tiny TV screens showing movies, but of what we have absolutely no idea. If you wait you may – but in the Branly there is no guarantee – discover what is on. Again, if I want to discover culture on a TV screen, I can do this from the comfort of my own home.

The collection is grouped by area of the world, but there is no obvious attempt to provide interpretation or any kind of theme that would help to understand what you are admiring. In true Francophone political correctness, much has been made of the importance of understanding foreign cultures and art as a means of creating better understanding of the similarities and differences around the world. But if nothing is explained, then it just remains a pretty piece of jewellery or a scary mask, and we learn nothing. To make matters worse, in this quest to create a theme of understanding and appreciation of the riches of Asian, African and Oceanian art and culture, they left behind in the rump of the Musée de l'Homme the very exhibitions that would provide a platform and the starting point for both our cultural and social similarities and differences. The prehistoric exhibits and the exhibition on mankind around the world have been left, decaying, in the Palais de Chaillot, while the Musée du quai Branly lacks (among a lot of other things) the frame of reference for what it presents.

The Musée du quai Branly is a mess, a total unmitigated disaster and worth visiting to see how crass modern museums can be: it is, however, a useful case study in how not to design a museum. Almost unbelievably, one of the museum's own commentaries arrogantly states how far removed it is from traditional museums. The designers and the curators of the Branly would do well to reflect on whether theirs meets any criteria on which museums could perhaps be measured: interpretation, display, lighting, access, ease of navigation, entertainment or education. It is possible to create museums that are far-removed from the traditional, without screwing it up completely: there are many in most countries around the world.

Tags:Branly, full, interior, Lights, Musée, quai