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What else to say about the MQB? Re-centring anthropology in art and French museum practices: A vision from an ex-boursier

What else to say about the MQB? Re-centring anthropology in art and French museum practices: A vision from an ex-boursier

This short piece investigates how “art” and “ethnography” have developed as two separated practices in ten years of existence of the Musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac (MQB) and how “politics” has been widely missing. Writing from a personal experience as a postdoctoral ex-boursier and building on recent essays about the genesis of the museum, the author seeks to identify points of raptures existent not only in the MQB as a cultural institution but also within the system of French ethnology, which does not leave sufficient space for art to dialogue with ethnography, nor for politics to dialogue with aesthetics. Rather than depicting the MQB as a “post-ethnographic museum” (de l’Estoile 2015), the author identifies in the Musée a good terrain for creating an “ethno-art-graphic” museum, where creative ethnographic collections will eventually make both art and anthropology.

Questa breve nota critica investiga come “arte” e “etnografia” si siano sviluppate negli ultimi dieci anni del Musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac (MQB) e di come ci si sia dimenticati della “politica”. Partendo da un’esperienza personale come boursier postdottorale e basandosi su lavori recenti riguardanti la genesi del museo, l’autrice identifica dei punti di rottura esistenti non soltanto nel MQB come istituzione culturale ma anche nel sistema dell’etnologia francese che non lascia spazio all’arte per dialogare con l’etnografia, né alla politica per dialogare con l’estetica. Piuttosto che presentare il MQB come un museo “post-etnografico” (de l’Estoile 2015), l’autrice identifica nel Musée un buon terreno per creare un museo “ethno-art-grafico” dove le collezioni creative ed etnografiche possano finalmente creare entrambe, arte e antropologia.

10.7340/anuac2239-625X-3398