2014 BE1218 Vanessa Kirana Student ID: 12019869 [MUSEE DU QUAI BRANLY] Re-inventing ethnographic museum in search for cultural equality Contents Page 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 2. Main Chapter .............................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Background ................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Jean Nouvel: The Winning Architect............................................................................. 4 2.3 In Meeting the Context ................................................................................................. 5 2.4 In Meeting the Function ............................................................................................. 15 2.5 The Controversies ....................................................................................................... 16 3. Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 19 4. Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 21 4.1 References .................................................................................................................. 21 4.2 References for Images ................................................................................................ 23 4.3 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 25 5. Appendix ................................................................................................................................... 26 1. Introduction e in gb e
h fo su e u diu aqlrn ya (MQB) was a response to unwavering efforts made by many enthusiasts and experts to create a prestigious national museum in France which displays artefacts from indigenous cultures of Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. In 1991, an eminent collector and ambassador of ethnic art, Jacques Kerchache, wrote a manifesto entitled Les chefs-d oeuvre du monde entier naissent libres et egaux (The World s Masterpieces Are Born Free and Equal). His manifesto aims to ensure that ethnic artworks are featured as part of core collections of France s prominent national museums. Carrying Kerchache s intention forward, France newly elected president in 1995, President Jacques Chirac announced a project to create a museum that displays the combined collections of the Musee National des Arts d Afrique et d Oceanie (MAAO), and the centre for ethnological research at the Musee del l Homme. Becoming a new home to a collection of diverse non-Western cultures, MQB plays an important political role. According to Dias (2008: 300-301), MQB is an instrument to meet the current government s agenda in reconciling the increasing ethnic diversity within France and also to show France s openness to the world. Moreover, in his opening speech for MQB, the United Nations (UN) Secretary- General, Kofi Annan pointed out the affinities between UN and MQB. He emphasised that the museum reinforces UNESCO s conventions regarding cultural diversity and its preservation. Along with historical and political significance, MQB presents a breakthrough to the typical ethnographic1 museums. MQB emphasises in providing another way of looking at man and nature . It tries to deny any western influences into its building and displays consequently by erasing the colonial context of their collections (Harris and O Hanlon, 2013; 10). As a modern According to Oxford Dictionary, ethnography means the scientific description of peoples and cultures with their customs, habits, and mutual differences. (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ethnography) 1 i,to su nit aims to engage with the latest ethical and political concerns such as preservation of biodiversity. Thus, through its architecture, the traditional assumption of close links between natural diversity and cultural diversity is re-enacted (Dias, 2008:303). Due to these various reasons, MQB becomes one of France s prominent national museums. Its historical and political importance and significant role in re-defining ethnographic museum, makes MQB seem almost engineered to ignite controversy (Kimmelman, 2006; A1).  2. Main Chapter 2.1 Background QB is located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris and just 100 meters from Eiffel Tower. The complex covers an area of around 25,100 m2 compromising the Branly and Auvent buildings which function as workstations and reading rooms with over 700,000 photographs and sound archives, the museum with a display of 3,500 objects, and the building around Rue de l Universite which houses library and restoration workshops. Each building is unique and designed in respect to its own functional needs. The large proportion of space allocated for the garden is aligned with Jean Nouvel s vision for the complex as a building nestled in the landscape and awaiting discovery . The museum continued to attract around 4,500 visitors every day since it first opened in June 2006. Despite the criticisms surrounding the museum, this optimistic figure shows, if anything, that anthropology museum need not be dull (Shelton, 2009: 2). Left to right. 1. Site map of Musee du quai Branly (image is taken from https://maps.google.co.uk/). 2. The curved shape of the building follows the natural arch of the Seine and the garden was initially planned as an extension to the neighboring Champ de Mars. These are to avoid any form of negative impacts on the surrounding environment. (image is taken from https://maps.google.co.uk/).  2.2 Jean Nouvel: The Winning Architect p n ieto m igsln d aeoreth ogib g sm aen d n ad o a ,o n dthe n i rctiu eh ailke rm n ao ster final project was awarded to Jean Nouvel (JN) for a design that has been described by the judges as striking without being monumental and at the same time sensitive to the context and the purpose of the institution compared to the other submissions (Shelton, 2009: 2). Clockwise. A series of photos showing some of Jean Nouvel s works. 3.Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, 1981-87. 4. Lyon Opera, Lyon, France, 1986-93. 5. Paris Philharmonic Hall, Paris, France, 2007-. 6. Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2007-. (photographs are taken from the internet). According to Jodidio, JN s conscientious fulfilment of the client s requirements and his adeptness at treading the fine line between respect for the past and audacious modernity are what make JN one of the greatest French architect (2012: 17-18). In JN s opinion, architect is not to impose his views and taste . Correspondingly, his buildings do not have any prominent signature style, his works always distinct from one to another. When he won the Pritzker  tiu ehPrize in 2008, the jury commended him for his rc insatiable surge for creative experimentation (Iovine, 2011: D.14). In his interview with Jean Baudrillard, JN strongly despises one of the current trends in architecture which is modelling, cloning (Baudrillard and Nouvel, 2002: 28). He firmly believes that architecture always changes. In consequence to this metamorphosis of architecture , according to Nouvel, architects are required to constantly diagnose the situation, required to face the fact that architecture is no longer the invention of a world but exist simply with respect to a geological layer. (Baudrillard and Nouvel, 2002: 17-18). His strong opinion in the understanding of context is not only on the site but also on the wider context that includes the cultures and history of the site, translates in his Louisiana Manifesto. To him, architecture means listening to the breathing of a living space, to its pulsations. It means interpreting its rhythms in order to create. 2.3 In Meeting the Context Initially, MQB was conceptualised under the desire to see non-Western art treated differently (Luke, 2012: 50). According to Stephane Martin, the President of MQB, earlier in France, indigenous art had only been presented as either a source of inspiration to modern art or a complement to Western history especially during the colonial period. So he pointed out that we needed a place where those (non-Western) cultures could be autonomous and could have leading, rather than supporting roles. In response to this, JN aims to eliminate any Western architectural references in his design for the museum. He imagined the building to have the impression of a sacred wood , where the visitors would view the artefacts liberated from Western architectural references such as barriers, showcases, railings. To realise this, he underpinned his design decisions to his theory of appearance- disappearance whereby one form disappears into another, a kind of metamorphosis (Baudrillard and Nouvel, 2002: 30). He uses layers of materials from glass to thick foliage of trees and the facade of the building itself to create this asylum for censored and cast off works from Australia and the Americas. (Nouvel, n.d.).  7. Axonometric plan of the main museum building. (illustration by author in reference to Musee du quai Branly official map). 6 From top left. Serial Vision. 8. A series of photos depicting a journey from the entrance of Musee du quai Branly to the ticketing office (photographs by author). 7 From top left. 9. This series of photos show the journey along the ramp connecting the lobby and the main collections gallery. A video installation titled The River ushers the visitors along the ramp. Throughout the journey, the visitors will experience an undulating terrain just like in nature, transferring from dark to bright sections along the ramp. The lighting along the ramp dim gradually before the visitors enter the main collection gallery, as if preparing them before entering the sacred wood (photographs by author). 8 The northern boundary of the site is protected from traffic noise by large glass elevations 200 X 12 meters high. Beyond this glass facade, an undulating landscape planted with 169 trees from various species urges visitors to explore and discover the elevated museum with random boxes protrusions above them. The bridge like form of the museum is constructed with steel which has two superimposed shutters supported on pendular columns (Engel, n.d.) which are arranged randomly to resemble trees in a forest. The garden path under the museum ushers visitors to the ticketing booth thereafter up to the circular path around the Garden gallery and ends at the museum s lobby. The voyage continues along the 180 meters ramp constructed of welded steel plates linked with a white, plaster medium . It gently rises, wrapping a 24 meters high circular silo which stores musical instruments. At the end of the ramp, a new world of darkness greets the travellers . 10. h erfeltcio no nth eglsawall facade of the scenery in front of Musee du quai Branly superimposed with the building and the trees behind the glass wall. This blurs the distinction between the actual object behind the glass and the reflection on the glass; blurs the distinction between fact and fiction. (photograph taken from the internet). Though the strict light limit is a challenge in designing the museum, JN, known for his affinity to black, embraces it and harness it to create the atmosphere that he envisioned. On the north side, light is filtered through the diamond shaped glasses which have dual function film. One of the sides has the image of natural settings of the corresponding geographic location of the  iltsco n eid h b n eti ehfm li sp lh etolo wer the transmission of light and simultaneously creates the sacred wood atmosphere. When the image of the tree on the glass superimposed on the profile of the trees in the garden, this combination blurs the distinction between reality and fiction. Again, emphasizing his idea on the metamorphosis of forms, appearancedisappearance. 11. This photo collage shows the garden under the main building. The 26 metal columns are arranged randomly to resemble trees, blending with the surrounding living trees in the garden. At night, the colorful lighting enhances the impression of a magical, sacred wood (photographs by author). 12. This photograph show the glass facades seen from the interior of the main collections gallery. Images of plants are printed on one side of the glass. The printed images filter the light to emphasise the jungle atmosphere and at the same time to protect the objects from direct sunlight (photograph is taken from the internet).  13. Two diagrams illustrating how the supporting pillars are placed randomly. The top diagram is showing the distribution of pillars on the first floor while the bottom diagram is showing the ground floor (diagrams by author). h ettp aemtorekabw a ay from Western references, there are neither corridors nor narfu hallways to separate different section in the permanent collection gallery. Instead, the gallery is divided into four continental areas; each flowing into one another. This is different from how museums of Western art usually arranged their collections based on period or country, Branly museum allocates its collections on the same floor, theoretically giving them all the same importance (Poulin, 2010). The only guiding structure would be a low, leather-clad wall, La Riviere, which runs in the middle of the gallery. Moreover, unlike typical anthropology museums whereby information panels containing detailed explanation are placed near each object, in MQB the text is kept to minimum and tucked away so as not to disturb the objects displayed. Some of the information is detached from the objects, such as the film screens which are integrated on the La Riviere, away from the displays. Furthermore, the randomly placed columns, designed to replicate trees, continue on the permanent exhibition space. In Nouvel s words, This is very different from a place that is structured in Western way. The columns are never on axis, mezzanine spaces are suspended in an unexpected way. (Symphony for a New Century, 2006: 28).  Main Collections Floor Plan. 14. The permanent collections gallery is an open- plan area. It is divided into four continental areas; each flowing into one another, differentiated only by different colour floor vinyl. The distribution of the display cases is also at random, without following any certain grids or rules. Moreover, the design of each display case and the boxes that protrudes out of the building is specific to the collections displayed within them. This is to allow each work to be appreciated to the full- spaces that perpetuate the living spirit of the cultures to which the building is dedicated (Musee du quai Branly, 2006). eavlo u ewas also in charge of the museology n 2 , he intended the display cases to be so large that their presence can almost be forgotten. [...] This is to create the impression that the objects are so called free . (Symphony for a New Century, 2006: 28). The glazed display boxes are huge in comparison to the objects displayed in it. They are approximately three meters high and four meters width and most of them only contain a maximum of four objects. The artefacts are lit by internal fiber optic, LED lights with addition of external spots which makes the objects glow in the dark exhibition space. The dramatic contrast between the well lit objects and the surrounding darkness of the environment blur the edges of the glass display boxes. Hence, make the objects free . In Oxford Dictionary, museology means the science or practice of organizing, arranging, and managing museums. (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/museology) 2  15. A collection of photos showing the interior of some of the boxes . The boxes are the only rooms within the open-plan main gallery. Some of them are enclosed and some of them are more open. The interior of each box is also different, depending on the objects displayed. The boxes allow visitors to experience the collections in a more intimate setting. (photographs by author). From left. 16.  p h o t sw h o ing the boxes seen from outside. 17. A photo showing the boxes seen from inside (photographs are taken from the internet).  18. !n esrc p liayn g ivd o se lread t to th e lseu ctr p sren d t are m eb din th eLa Riviere (photograph by author). 19. Some photographs showing various ways in which objects are displayed within the museum (photographs by author). 20. In order to prevent the text panels from disturbing the visitors in viewing the objects displayed, the text panels are coloured black with dimly glowing words on them. They are placed at the corners whereby the glass displays are gradually darkened. This method makes the text panels visually blend with the display glasses smoothly (photographs by author).  2.4 In Meeting the Function eito su nsahrtehsin o m yln ,m aeto preserve and present the collection, to function as $h a research centre, and to organise educational activities. Apart from taking the highest standard to protect the collection, the institution is also committed in providing facilities for learning. In the basement, there are multiple rooms allocated for workshops, a cinema and a lecture theatre. From this level, the musical storage room can be accessed. There are also a research hub, conservation laboratories, a research library and multimedia resources on the terrace. Hence, as the museum s president, Stephane Martin, concurs Quai Branly is less a museum than a cultural complex. [..] In addition, the museum is also a campus for students, and researchers who can study the collections in exceptional conditions. (Bure, 2006: 68). As a forward looking institution which aims to be an ever changing forum for discussions and where a new way of looking at indigenous art is endorsed, an area of approximately 6,000 m 2 is dedicated for temporary exhibitions. Temporary exhibitions from various contemporary artists such as a London based- Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare provides a new venue for looking at objects in an historical and cross- cultural persective (Dias, 2008: 310). On top of that, the design of the museum is sensitive to the needs of handicapped visitors. The ramp leading to the main gallery winds gently to provide rest landings conforming to the handicapped regulations. There are also some flip chairs integrated along the ramp as rest areas. There are plenty of easily accessible lifts to provide ease for visitors to move around the museum. Moreover, the La Riviere is specially adapted for handicapped visitors with brail text etched on it. This thoughtful design really reflects how the museum intends to promote cultural diversity for all. 21. Flip chairs are integrated along the ramp as rest areas for handicapped visitors (photograph by author). "# 2.5 The Controversies m n ain(ew York Times, blatantly compared MQB with 'lie Louvre s Pavillon des Sessions, judging the former as inferior to the later. Similar to MQB, Pavillon des Sessions was born from the ambition of President Jacques Chirac and Jacques Kerchache to elevate the status indigenous art in France to equal footing as Western art. Occupying a rather modest space of 1,400 m2 compared to MQB, the pavillon exhibits over 100 historic works of African, Asian, Oceanic and American art. Opened in 2000, this Pavillon was a preview to MQB which was opened later. Symbolising a departure from traditional ethnographic museums, the artefacts in the Pavillon were shown specifically for its aesthetic qualities rather than a strictly historical or ethnographic presentation (Poulin, 2010). This unusual way to curate indigenous artefacts was also applied in MQB. However, each respective architect resolved to a polar opposite solutions to meet the brief. Nouvel s decision to centre his design on the theme of sacred wood has elicited some harsh criticisms. There seems to be discrepancy between the museum s intentions to provide equal footing for indigenous arts with the western masterpieces and the overdone jungle theme which, according to some critics, acts the opposite. Gilles Manceron, a historian and civil rights proponents pointed out that the jungle theme as perpetuating traditional stereotypes of nonWestern people living in a state of savagery (Bremmer in Shelton, 2009: 7). In contrast to the grim Branly museum, the artefacts in Louvre were displayed in a brightly lit, all white space. The original decor of the gallery were stripped back, instead, a modern and sparse gallery replaced it, reminding us of art exhibition spaces. Every object was placed in an individual glass case, which according to Kimmelman gives the object dignity of its own space, which seemed to me (Kimmelman) a metaphor for how to treat all civilizations (2006: 23). Similar to in MQB, the appearance of text panels in Pavillon are minimised to maintain the coherence of the exhibition and the quality of the objects on display (Guichard, 2007:38). The text panels are confined to the side and placed on the surrounding walls , detached from the %& sfrt+cae However, compared to Branly museum where information panels are sometimes hidden, in Louvre, a large plasticised panels which contains abundant information about the artefacts complete with photographs are made available for visitors to pick up at each display area. Because of this readily available information, Kimmelman described his experience in Louvre made me (him) want to learn more in contrast to how his experience in Branly gradually discouraged the desire to find out more (2006: 23). In Return to the Quai Branly, Noce mentioned that the vital problems that MQB has is the lighting in the darkness of the galleries coupled with Inadequate or illegible labels which caused a lack of logic in the exhibition (2010: 15). 23. Similar to Musee du quai Branly, in Pavillon des Sessions there is a space allocated for monitors to display videos related to the objects displayed. This multimedia space is located at the back of the room, detached from the objects displayed (photograph is taken from the internet). 22. Photographs showing the interior of the all white exhibition gallery in Pavillon des Sessions. Each object has its own personal space. The size of the text panels are minimised so that they will not disturb the pleasure of the visitors in viewing the objects (photographs are taken from the internet). )* o ,e .rv Branly museum does not seem to efficiently use the space it has, out of the 300,000 objects collected from Musee National des Arts d Afrique et d Oceanie and Musee del l Homme, only 3,500 are on display. Harding stressed that the old Musee del l Homme had five times the number of objects in display (2007: 32). Though visually Jean Nouvel managed to achieve his vision for the museum and create an impressive building, his preoccupation in achieving this has unfortunately, as some critics pointed out, hindered the museum to achieve its basic function to provide information. ,- 3. Conclusion p sethrn ctveiso 1tie , Musee du quai Branly has clearly marked its place in the world map as a modern and forward looking museum for indigenous arts. Envisioned by its creator to be a Parisian garden becomes a sacred wood, with a museum dissolving in its depths , in reality, the new museum has successfully matches up to the ambition of its architect. Protected behind the giant glass wall, the building blends seamlessly with the flourishing landscape designed by Patrick Blanc. The visitors sensory experiences are completely engaged in this museum. Rochon, in The Globe and Mail, found the museum offered an aesthetic experience that is by turns exhilarating and jarring. (2006: R3). MQB, in my opinion, is able to provide an asylum for indigenous arts free from western influences which was intended by the founders through the use of open- space plan and the arrangement of elements such as display cases and pillars that do not follow a certain grid. Moreover, the care taken to design each display area specific to the objects contained has clearly elevated the status of the objects, as Martin and Viatte agree that the museum has changed the public opinion on objects that are from race that was once humiliated during colonial period into an expression of aesthetic genius. (in Shelton, 2009: 14). Though the validity of excluding historical and colonial references from the exhibition is debatable, at the very least Branly museum is popular among the public, drawing 8 million visitors in its first 6 years (Luke, 2012: 50). From this figure, it is safe to say that the museum has achieved its goal in promoting cultural diversity in France. Furthermore, according to Brothers, 40% of the visitors compromise of new museum- goers who are attracted by the links the museum provides between them and their cultures of origin. . Maori artist Fiona Pardington is impressed by the museum s engagement on critical issues though dismissed the museum as Western receptacles at their worst (in Shelton, 2009: 14). This generally positive response from the ethnic group which the museum represented /0 w o es to the provision of generous temporary exhibition space and engagement with indigenous artist to decorate the architectural fabric of the building (Wilson, 2005:44). Moreover, the availability of various public spaces ranging from outdoor amphitheatre, lecture theatre, cinema and educational workshops allows the institution to commit to greater and more in-depth coverage of world cultures. (Shelton, 2009: 7). This constant engagement with present non- Western cultures emphasises the government s aim of equality of all culture (Poulin, 2010). In conclusion, though Branly museum may not be the perfect example in presenting equal representation of non-Western cultures (Poulin, 2010), Branly museum managed to combine visual attraction, information and sensorial experience which are not commonly found in French museums (Dias, 2008:310). MQB has paved a new path for ethnographic museum to be an educational institution that is outward looking and relevant. All in all, MQB is a fascinating space which leaves a deep impression to its audience. Its uniqueness stirs childhood cravings for adventures, encouraging the visitors to come back and to engage in a continuous dialogue with the distant cultures. 23 4. Bibliography 4.1 References auJ and Nouvel, J (2002). 6,rlid of Minnesota Press. The Singular Objects of Architecture. Minneapolis: University Croft, BL, 2005. Musee du quai Branly, Paris Indigenous art commission from Australia , Artonview, 41, pp. 44-46, Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 14 March 2014. Dias, N., 2008. Double erasures: rewriting the past at the Musee du quai Branly. Social Anthropology, 16(3), pp. 300-311. Engel, P. (). Quai Branly Museum. Available: http://www.constructalia.com/english/case_studies/france/quai_branly_museum#.UzDIzvl_uC Q. Last accessed 16th Mar 2014.FORTESCUE, E., 2013. See Australia from the rooftops of Paris. Art Newspaper, 22(247), pp. 32. Guichard, M. (2010). A Museum Paying Tribute to the Arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Available: http://ebookbrowsee.net/80/809869-dissertation-maud-guichard-2- pdf#.UzDLM_l_uCQ. Last accessed 16th Mar 2014. Harding, J. (2007). At Quai Branly. Available: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n01/jeremy-harding/at- quai-branly. Last accessed 14th Mar 2014. Harris, C. and O'Hanlon, M., 2013. The future of the enthnographic museum. Anthropology today, 29(1), pp. 8-12. 45 eo n 8iv , J.V., 2011, Dec 17. OFF DUTY --- Design & Decorating -- 60 Seconds With: Jean Nouvel --- The Pritzker-winning French architect checks in on hotels, carousels and burning down the house. Wall Street Journal. ISSN 00999660. Nouvel, J. (). Quai Branly Museum. Available: http://www.jeannouvel.com/english/preloader.html. Last accessed 16th Mar 2014 Jodidio, P (2012). Nouvel. Koln: Taschen. Jodidio, P., 2006. Jean Nouvel: l'art dissonant/Symphony for a new century. Art Press, (325), pp. 24-31. Kimmelman, M., 2006, Jul 02. A Heart Of Darkness In the City Of Light. New York Times (1923Current file), 2. ISSN 03624331. Luke, B., 2012. Power and taboo. Apollo, 175(598), pp. 50-54. Nouvel, J., 2005. Louisiana Manifesto. Poulin, T. L. (2010). "'Every Place in the World on the Same Level!': Examining the Display of Non-Western Art at the Musee du Quai Branly." Student Pulse, 2(03). Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=210. Price, S., 2010. Return to the Quai Branly. Museum Anthropology, 33(1), pp. 11-21. Shelton, A., 2009. The Public Sphere as Wilderness: Le Musee du quai Branly. American Anthropological Association,pp. 1-16. 77 4.2 References for Images ;< tin eh ro(2008), =,k Institut du Monde Arabe [ONLINE]. Available at: http://arkhitekton.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/institut_du_monde_arabe_lge.jpg [Accessed 16 March 14]. 4. Defigrandesecoles, (2013), Lyon Opera [ONLINE]. Available at: http://defigrandesecoles.lexpress.fr/em-lyon/2013/03/13/les-25-secrets-de-lyon-15-lopera-delyon/ [Accesssed 16 March 14]. 5. Yann Kersale, (2010), Philharmonie de Paris [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.philharmoniedeparis.com/en/sites/default/files/imagecache/1300/documents/mis e_en_lumiere_mention_obligatoire_yann_kersale.jpg [Accessed 16 March 2014]. 6. 3BP Blogspot, (2010), Louvre Museum Abu Dhabi [ONLINE]. Available at: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RraCJNjDiP0/TNvaPqi3JAI/AAAAAAAAAOU/L- ZukS179tw/s1600/Jean+Nouvel+-+Louvre+Museum+%2528Abu+Dhabi%2529+-+1.jpg [Accessed 16 March 2014]. 10. O25, (2006), Branly Museum [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.o25.gr/sites/default/files/imagecache/MAX/blog/96794-050-DC770CEB.jpg [Accessed 20 March 2014]. 12. 9: aonaws, (), [ONLINE]. Available at: @zm https://s3.amazonaws.com/localers-us- prod/pictures/assets/749/slider_tour_panoramic.jpg [Accessed 20 March 2014]. 16. World Top Top, (2011), Musee du quai Branly 3 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.worldtoptop.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/musee_du_quai_branly_3.jpg [Accessed by 20 March 2014]. 17. Barkitecturemag, (2011), Quai 650 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://barkitecturemag.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/12/quai.650.jpg [Accessed by 24 March 2014]. 22. Staticflickr, (), [ONLINE]. Available at: http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2447/3703915155_24133f099a_o.jpg [Accessed by 24 March 2014]. Wikimedia, (), Pavillon des Sessions 01 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Pavillon_des_Sessions_01.jpg [Accessed by 24 March 2014]. 23. Wikimedia, (), Le muse du Quai Branly au palais du Louvre Pavillon des Session [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Le_mus%C3%A9e_du_Quai_Branly_au _palais_du_Louvre_Pavillon_des_Sessions_(3704761634).jpg [Accessed by 24 March 2014]. >? 4.3 Bibliography d m eH (2006). C,u The Musee du Quai Branly. Paris: Editoriale Lloyd, Italie. Gallery MA (1995). Jean Nouvel Lumieres. Tokyo: Sato Atsushi. Holmes, B., Suffield, L. and Poole, M. (2002). Nouvel. Madrid: Aldeasa: Ana Cela and Ana Martin. N.A. (2006). Musee du quai Branly. Available: http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/. Last accessed 24 March 2014. Rabinowitz, S., 2009. The Jazz Century at Musee du quai Branly: The Discursive Dimension of Exhibition. Design Art Pap 33 No. 4. Trento, G., (2005). The renewal of the Musée de l Homme. Journal of Cultural Heritage 6 (2005) 199 204. AB 5. Appendix DE The future of the ethnographic museum Clare Harris & Michael O Hanlon Clare Harris is Reader in Visual Anthropology and Curator for Asian Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum. She is also a Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford. Her most recent book is The museum on the roof of the world: Art, politics and the representation of Tibet, University of Chicago Press, 2012. Her email address is: clare.harris@prm.ox.ac.uk. Michael O Hanlon is Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum. He has published on New Guinea highland ethnography, the site of his long-term fieldwork, and on anthropology and museums. His previous post was at the British Museum. His email address is: Michael.O Hanlon@prm. ox.ac.uk. 1. The Pitt Rivers Museum now receives over 370,000 visitors annually. 2. For further information about this project see http:// www.rimenet.eu/ 3. 19-21 July 2013. The future of ethnographic museums. Pitt-Rivers Museum & Keble College, Oxford. For further information about the conference see http:// www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ PRMconference.html or contact: conference@prm. ox.ac.uk. 4. For accounts of the relationship between academic anthropology and ethnographic museums in the nineteenth century see Stocking 1991 and Conn 2009. 5. Since the Ethnography Museums and World Cultures project focuses on Europe, this article does not include ethnographic museums in other parts of the world. We are also aware that a much lengthier discussion would be required in order to do justice to the complex histories of comparable institutions in settler nations such as New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Canada, not to mention the many other cultural centres, community museums and heritage projects that have been established by 8 Ethnographic museums have experienced major changes over the last couple of decades. Here, Clare Harris and Michael O Hanlon, convenors of the forthcoming conference The future of ethnographic museums , take a look at the challenges and the opportunities ethnographic museums face today. Ed. Let us begin with a provocation: the ethnographic museum is dead. It has outlived its usefulness and has nothing more to offer in pursuance of its historic mandate as a location for the representation of other cultures. Although there are some in anthropological and political circles who may well concur with this view, it seems that hundreds of thousands of others do not. For example, at the museum in Oxford where we are employed the Pitt Rivers Museum visitor numbers have trebled in the last two decades and the museum is a more vibrant space than it has ever been in the past.1 And yet, in academic and public discourse during the same period, there has been an increasing level of unease about what an ethnographic museum might be for, whom it might serve, and what it should contain. These and other topics, have been the foci of international symposia held in university departments, think tanks, and museums around the world. In Europe, many of the most recent gatherings of this sort have been convened under the auspices of the Ethnography Museums and World Cultures project a collaboration between ten ethnographic museums that has been funded by the European Commission. The project s mission statement prompted ethnographic museums to redefine their priorities in response to an ever more globalizing and multicultural world and, over the five years of its duration (2008-2013), has driven the creation of exhibitions, publications, websites and workshops.2 It culminates in a major conference to be held in Oxford in July 2013.3 At that event, a fundamental question that has underpinned discussion over the course of the project will be addressed: what is the future of ethnographic museums in Europe? In order to tackle this issue we have invited some of the leading figures in the study of museums to speak in Oxford, with James Clifford as the keynote lecturer. Of course the question we have posed them is not a simple one. In what follows, we would therefore like to briefly outline some of the additional quandaries that arise when considering the past, present, and especially the future of ethnographic museums. We believe that these issues are not just of interest to museum curators and anthropologists. (Nor are they solely of relevance to ethnographic museums, as similar questions could also be asked of academic anthropology itself.) But we hope that this short survey and especially the conference in July, will spark debate within the wider community of academics, policy makers and museum audiences. Ethnographic museums: A very short introduction Ethnographic museums have a long and distinguished history. As teaching establishments and the institutional homes of some of the leading figures in the early phases of anthropology the American Museum of Natural History for Franz Boas and the Pitt Rivers Museum for Edward Tylor, among others they can be said to have helped lay the foundations of the discipline.4 They have also been sites for all sorts of other kinds of pedagogy, as well as places where, in the era before television, film, mass tourism and the Internet, the general public could encounter the material evidence of anthropological research in person. In the nineteenth century, for those who did not (or could not) read ethnographic literature, the museum provided a window onto the discipline and a space where the tangible forms of the societies studied by anthropologists could be displayed. Until at least the middle of the twentieth century, displays in ethnographic museums were therefore the product of a rather simple equation: objects stood metonymically for the distant others and distant places experienced and analyzed by anthropologists. However as Johannes Fabian (1983) famously put it, one effect of such elisions was to deny agency and coevality to those who were the subject of anthropology. Along with the charge that they fixed objects within racist evolutionary hierarchies or paraded the trophies of colonial pillage, the ethnographic museum has thus frequently been accused of pickling both people and things in aspic. In fact, when the curator of North American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, William Sturtevant, published an essay under the title Does anthropology need museums? in 1969, he concluded his survey of ethnographic museums by stating that they were petrified institutions with a reputation as shabby as a bordello . In the decades since that damning judgement, however, pressure from both external and internal sources has pushed ethnographic museums (as well as anthropology of course) in new directions and seems to have revived their fortunes. Along with the impact of post-colonial politics and post-structuralist reflexivity, the material turn in anthropology has been particularly influential. It has asserted that objects (like persons) can have agency and are resistant to the kind of timeless representations that museums have tended to force upon them. Ever since the publication of Appadurai s Social life of things in 1986, the notion that objects possess the capacity to convey meaning in any controllable or singular sense (as had previously been assumed by the museum model) has rightly been abandoned in preference for conceptual schema that emphasize their mobility, multivocality and malleability. In addition, as Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1991) has argued with specific reference to the objects of ethnography curated by museums, the classifications imposed upon them have increasingly been interrogated and viewed as context dependent, relational or even redundant. It is now quite clear that Sturtevant s comparison between an ossified museum and a house of ill repute can be overturned. Or at the very least, that it is the artefacts contained within ethnographic museums which can, in their many and various interpretive registers, be construed as promiscuous. Let us now turn to a series of questions about ethnographic museums in Europe in the twenty-first century and ask what they are, where they are located (not just physically but within intellectual and discursive settings), what they should contain, and what they might do both for future generations of anthropologists and for their visitors of all descriptions.5 What is an ethnographic museum ? There are a number of devices that frame an ethnographic museum and introduce it to its public, from the signage at its entrance to the architectural style of the building ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013 Fig. 1. The Pacific Galleries at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. indigenous groups or within post-colonial nations. 6. Interestingly, ethnographic museums that take their names from their founders or donors such as Stuttgart s Linden Museum, Prague s Náprstek Museum and Oxford s Pitt Rivers Museum have apparently felt themselves sufficiently sheltered from external currents not to need nominal adjustment. 7. See http://icom.museum/ fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/ ICOM_News/2004-1/ENG/ p4_2004-1.pdf. 8. This museum also embraces the strange notion of the arts premier . For one anthropologist s response to the Musée du Quai Branly see Price 2007. 9. It is worth noting that folklore or folk arts have often been included in the categories and collections of some of the oldest ethnographic museums in Europe including the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. In other places, (such as in Rome) folk culture has been distinguished from the ethnographic by being placed in separate institutions. Our thanks to Laura van Broekhaven for directing our attention to the museum in Antwerp. 10. In the UK, recent government initiatives to embrace philanthropy and reduce state spending equally risk driving museums in this direction. 11. See for example Barbara KirshenblattGimblett 2000. 12. For some examples of such exercises see Peers & Brown 2003, Van Broekhaven et al. 2010 and Phillips 2011. 13. The spirit sings was held at the Glenbow Museum in Alberta, Canada in 1988. In 1989 Into the heart of Africa was exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum, also in Canada. 14. For discussion of the therapeutic potential of museums and their collections see, for example, Ruth Phillips 2011. 15. The terminology is disputed some prefer digital- or visual- over virtual repatriation . 16. The 2006 volume Museum frictions edited by Karp et al. was the first attempt to examine museums in the light of such theorizing, but overtly ethnographic museums were not its specific focus. 17. Our thanks to the four careful reviewers of this essay whose comments have been taken on board as far as was possible given the brevity and limited remit of it. that houses its collections. But how are these structures to be defined and what is actually inscribed over their front doors today? What is immediately noteworthy is the self re-classification that ethnographic museums have carried out in the last few decades. Under the influence of post-colonial studies and feminism (among other things), museums of mankind (as the British Museum s ethnographic collection was called when it was located in Piccadilly) or of Man (such as the Musée de l Homme in Paris) were renamed as they were transferred to new premises. More recently, while the words ethnographic or völkerkunde (ethnology) have been retained by some museums in Europe, others have chosen to call themselves museums of World Culture .6 But what does this semantic shift to world museum indicate: that such museums have global coverage in terms of their collections and that they seek to speak to a global constituency of visitors? Or is the term World Culture flagging up a more egalitarian model that allows all cultures to be accommodated within the museum? Even if it is intended to subvert the hierarchies of the past, there remains a risk that, like World Art and World Music , World Culture actually refers to those cultures that can be most readily accommodated into the long established paradigms of the West. We might also wonder about the similarities between the World Culture concept and the universal museum . With its roots in the Enlightenment, the principles of the latter have been revived of late by several of the most significant museums in Europe and North America including the British Museum, the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In their 2002 Declaration on the importance and value of universal museums representatives of those museums argued that the retention of material accumulated from other countries was of universal rather than of solely national benefit.7 Given the chequered history of acquisition at ethnographic museums in the colonial period, the World Culture concept could smack of a similar attempt at rebranding. There is undoubtedly some uncertainty at present about what to call the museums that were, or still are, associated with anthropology, underscoring the extent to which the ethnographic museum has been undergoing an identity crisis. Where are ethnographic museums ? The fact that there have been changes in vocabulary over the many decades since the creation of the first ethnographic museums in the early nineteenth century is hardly surprising. In parallel with this, they have also undergone and continue to undergo substantial physical transformations. Across Europe ethnographic museums have been abandoned or abolished, reinvented and redesigned. As noted earlier, the British Museum in London no longer has a separate outstation for the display of its ethnographic collections, since the Museum of Mankind in Piccadilly closed to the public in 1997. In continental Europe, at Vienna and Leiden (for example) the original edifices which used to house their museums of völkerkunde have been saved, but their interiors have been totally remodelled and new styles of display have been introduced. In fact only a few ethnographic museums in Europe remain unaltered. Even the Pitt Rivers Museum, with its apparently unchanging displays organized by type rather than region, has in fact been in a constant process of gradual mutation and has recently received the attention of architects. A new annexe has been added to its historic court and an improved entrance area created to allow easier access for visitors. At the other end of the spectrum, in Paris in 2006, the collections of the former Musée de l Homme and the Musée National des Arts d Afrique et d Océanie were combined in the entirely new Musée du Quai Branly com- ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013 missioned by Jacques Chirac as testimony to his embrace of the arts primitifs.8 By rehousing these collections in a statement building designed by the acclaimed modernist architect Jean Nouvel, the Musée du Quai Branly has put indigenous art firmly on the tourist map of Paris and created a must-see venue in a capital already renowned for its profusion of great museums. Similarly, in 2011, a stunning building was completed in Antwerp for the Museum Aan de Stroom. This new institution brings together the collections of Antwerp s folklore , ethnographic and maritime museums, and has had a reviving effect on the area of the city where it is located.9 This points to another question for the future of ethnographic museums: how will they define themselves and carve out a distinct identity in the face of competition from other kinds of exhibitionary institutions such as art galleries, art/historical museums, heritage sites and the fairs and biennales of the art world? The question is especially acute, as all of these forums have to some extent absorbed both the ideas and objects that were previously promoted by ethnographic museums. As Susan Vogel (1989), Sally Price (1989) and others first observed in the 1980s, ethnographic artefacts can be readily construed as art according to criteria determined by people who are neither their makers nor anthropologists. But since funds generated by tourism and leisure activities are often vital for the financial health of ethnographic museums, there must be at least a theoretical risk that such museums will be driven to enhance the visual appeal of ethnographic objects in order to capture the public s attention.10 Of course this raises the potential hazard that in creating a spectacle in the selection of outstanding objects, the manner in which they are displayed, and the forms of the architecture that surrounds them ethnographic museums will then stand accused of simply reinforcing the very perceptions of exoticism and otherness that academic anthropology has repeatedly sought to defuse. There is also some anxiety that they might become more susceptible to the agendas of the art market in a period when some commentators suggest that we are witnessing a return to the nineteenth century World s Fair 9 Fig. 2. Solar powered prayer wheel collected in India and exhibited in the Made for trade exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum, 2012. Appadurai, A. (ed.) 1986. The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Basu, P. 2011. Object diasporas, resourcing communities: Sierra Leonean collections in the global museumscape. Museum Anthropology 34 (1): 28-42. Clifford, J. 1997. Routes: Travel and translation in the late twentieth century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cohn, B. 1996. Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: The British in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Conn, S. 2009. Do museums still need objects? Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Coombes, A. 1997. Reinventing Africa: Museums, material culture and popular imagination in late Victorian and Edwardian England. New Haven: Yale University Press. Davis, R. 1999. The lives of Indian images. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Fabian, J. 1983. Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Gosden, C. & F. Larson 2007. Knowing things: Exploring the collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum 1884 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Harris, C. forthcoming. Digital dilemmas: The ethnographic museum as distributive institution. In Lattanzi, V. (ed.) Beyond Modernity. Rome: Pigorini Museum. Hoskins, J. 1998. Biographical objects: How things tell the stories of peoples lives. London: Routledge. 10 archetype in which ethnographica was viewed as an artlike commodity whose value only increased according to the degree of exoticism it evoked.11 Should the ethnographic museum therefore concentrate on the more prosaic products that people consume every day rather than the rarefied pieces favoured by art connoisseurs? Even if this were a desirable ambition, it would still not obviate the need for selection and judgement. As Miller (1994: 396) has cogently argued: Some things, such as houses and ships, are too big, some things, such as candy floss and daisy chains, too ephemeral. Do we include every brand of car door mirrors and shampoo, and if a company proclaims a change in the product is this a new artefact or not? What about self-made artefacts, those that children have made at school, or that individuals have knitted on the bus? Moreover, there are already a number of specialist museums that collect the evidence of contemporary consumption. In fact one example of this phenomenon, the Museum of Failed Products in Michigan, could be viewed as a reincarnation of the early ethnographic museums because, rather like the salvage ethnographers of the early twentieth century, it too collects the redundant and defunct. This brings us to the next question in our brief survey of the topic. What is in an ethnographic museum ? In the last few years a number of ethnographic museums in Europe have chosen to remove much of their historical material from display in preference for newly acquired objects and for exhibitions that focus on topics of contemporary socio-political relevance. A recent example of an establishment that has attempted a change of this sort is the Museum of World Cultures in Göteborg, Sweden. They cleared their old galleries and embarked on a series of shows that engaged with current issues, as in their 2004 exhibition AIDS in the age of globalization. Meanwhile other museums have continued to capitalize on the strengths of material amassed long ago by keeping it available to the viewing public whilst also conducting research on the histories of their collections and the relationships that created them. At the Pitt Rivers Museum the Relational Museum project drew upon ideas from Actor Network Theory in order to study the sets of relationships that had contributed to the creation of the museum s collection in the nineteenth and early twentieth century (Gosden & Larson 2007). This is just one case where advances in the theoretical analysis of material culture have impinged positively on the inner workings of ethnographic museums. Lack of space precludes us from describing other research projects such as those inspired by the biographical methods advanced by the likes of Kopytoff (1986) and Hoskins (1998), or the attempts made to chart the afterlives of museum objects by authors such as Coombes (1997) and Davis (1999), or which investigate the entangled nature of colonial relations through things as first developed by Nicholas Thomas (1991). All of these approaches have allowed ethnographic museum collections to be reconceived as major resources for the interrogation of colonialism and/or for engaging with indigenous people and other audiences. But to return to the question of what should be in ethnographic museums: if fidelity to the contemporary requires a focus on today s material culture, but collecting its totality is plainly impossible, might acquiring contemporary artworks be an alternative way of evidencing an engagement with that problematic term modernity ? And if so, should the artists who create those works be integrated into the ethnographic museum project as mediators or as critics? Once again, the boundary lines are difficult to draw as the so-called ethnographic turn in contemporary art has generated artworks that critique museums along with others that appear to celebrate them, such as artist Richard Wilson s Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles which emulates the immediate precursor of ethnographic museums: the cabinet of curiosity. Classificatory boundaries are also challenged by the artworks created by artists based in the rising powerhouses of the contemporary art world (such as India, Australia, Nigeria and so on) and whether they should be exhibited in modern art galleries rather than in ethnographic museums. Of course for many ethnographic museums, the main debating point in the last thirty years has not been about which things they should acquire, but rather what they should or should not retain. Campaigns driven by indigenous groups and activists both within and without anthropology have brought arguments about the politics of possession to their doorsteps. This has led to some cases of successful repatriation (and some unsuccessful ones), the drafting of new museum policies, and to legislation that upholds the interests of the original owners or source communities from whom many of the objects in museums were derived (most notably the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in the US). Museum anthropologists and curators have increasingly attempted to rethink the museum as a contact zone (Clifford 1997), a space in which past histories and disparities of power are acknowledged, and a fresh moral relationship negotiated. By facilitating interaction between representatives of originating communities and those who work within museums, creating easier access to collections and consulting more sensitively about the histories and on-going potency of museum objects, ethnographic museums have been substantially improved and perhaps some old wounds have begun to be healed.12 Yet certain stubborn facts remain. Since many of the collections now held in European ethnographic museums were accumulated during the colonial period, the legacy of that time can still be said to shape their present form and, just as colonialism and its forms of knowledge (Cohn 1996) varied from nation to nation in the past, so too do contemporary attitudes to that past. While some institutions have tried to erase the colonial context of their collections by abandoning the edifices that originally housed them (as in Paris) and/or re-designating them as World Art , the majority still prefer to exhibit objects from their historic collections as representative of other cultures but with more modern narratives attached to them. Usually this is done without reference to the troubled histories of their acquisition. Perhaps the ferocious reception that greeted long-past exhibitions such as The spirit sings (1988) or Into the heart of Africa (1989), has been sufficiently enduring to disincline curators to attempt similar exercises that recall the involvement of museums with the colonial project.13 Or maybe there is just fatigue at the repeated suggestion that if ethnographic museums were one of the handmaidens of colonialism , they have still not gone far enough in critiquing themselves. However, behind the scenes in many ethnographic museums, a post-colonial intellectual refurbishment has in fact often already been conducted, even if it may not be fully apparent to the public. But there is a sticking point in making such renovations visible, and it is an obdurate one, arising from the nature of collections. If ethnographic museums are to redefine their priorities in response to an ever more globalizing and multicultural world (as the rubric of the Ethnography Museums and World Cultures project suggests and as governments, local authorities and other funding bodies frequently insist) then museum objects and exhibitions will need to address multicultural audiences and reflect the material (and social) manifestations of global flows. ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013 (From above to below, left to right) Fig. 3. Young visitors in the South Asian galleries at the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart. Fig. 4. Entrance to the Asia Galleries at the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna. Fig. 5. The buildings and gardens at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. Fig. 6. The galleries of the Pitt Rivers Museum during an event when visitors examine the cases by torch light. Fig. 7. Raven mask performance by Haida dancers outside the Pitt Rivers Museum, 2009. ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 29 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2013 11 Karp, I. et al. (eds). 2006. Museum frictions: Public cultures/global transformations. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B. 1991. Objects of ethnography. In Karp, I. & S. Lavine (eds). Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 2000. The museum as catalyst. Keynote address at Museums 2000, ICOM conference, Sweden. Available at: http://www. nyu.edu/classes/bkg/web/ vadstena.pdf. Kopytoff, I. 1986. The cultural biography of things: Commoditization as process. In Appadurai, A.(ed.) The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Miller, D. 1994. Artefacts and the meaning of things. In Ingold, T. (ed.) Companion encyclopedia of anthropology. London: Routledge. Peers, L. & A. Brown 2003. Museums and source communities: A Routledge reader. London: Routledge. Phillips, R. 2011. Museum pieces: Towards the indigenization of Canadian museums. Montreal: McGill-Queen s University Press. Price, S. 1989. Primitive art in civilized places. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2007. Paris primitive, Jacques Chirac s museum on the Quai Branly. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Stocking, G. 1991. Victorian anthropology. New York: The Free Press. Sturtevant, W. 1969. Does anthropology need museums? Proceedings of The Biological Society of Washington 82: 619-649. Thomas, N. 1991. Entangled objects: Exchange, material culture and colonialism in the Pacific. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2010. The museum as method. Museum Anthropology 33 (1): 6-10. Van Broekhaven, L. et al. (eds). 2010. Sharing knowledge and cultural heritage: First nations of the Americas. Leiden: National Museum of Ethnology and Sidestone Press. Vogel, S. 1989. Art/ artifact: African art in anthropology collections. New York: Center for African Art and Prestel Verlag. 12 However, this is something that the museums existing holdings cannot always readily support. Let us consider a purely hypothetical example. A contemporary European ethnographic museum might have an extremely strong collection from the Arctic, but little from say Afghanistan, and yet global migration patterns may mean that far more of its visitors in the future will have Asian rather than Arctic roots. In brief, the historic shape of ethnographic collections does not easily match that of the contemporary world because they usually either map the contours of colonialism or concur with the pre-established disciplinary boundaries of anthropology in their emphasis on particular regions and the construction of indigeneity. How can this mismatch between the demographics of contemporary Europe and the collections accumulated in the past be resolved? Should the old collections be deaccessioned or just reoriented to suit the new cartographies of migration? At a point in time when bodies outside the museum are demanding a closer mirroring between the ethnicity of their audiences and the objects selected for display, one of the classic rationales behind the establishment of ethnographic museums of displaying difference rather than confirming similarity is potentially being undermined. Whereas in the past, curators might have confidently assumed that a show about the lives of distant others could be of interest to all, some of them are now under pressure to prioritize the representation of those in their immediate vicinity. The very concept of a museum s community or audience thus also needs problematizing. Who goes to an ethnographic museum ? Underlying everything we have said so far, is the assumption that museums have audiences. Those audiences are made up of actual visitors, along with growing numbers of virtual visitors (see below). On-site visitors may come from the local population or they may have travelled some distance to reach the museum. Their backgrounds are highly diverse and what they expect from the museum as tourists, researchers, members of source communities , students and so on, varies enormously. Ethnographic collections need to meet the needs of these constituencies, but they are also tasked with fulfilling the requirements of funders whether national governments, universities or regional or local bodies. Here, as with repatriation issues, wider political agendas are intrinsic to the operation of ethnographic museums. They may even be required to instantiate a national (even a nationalistic) narrative and to conform to politicized directives. But how should they react, for example, to requirements from their local funding body to concentrate on the region where they are located, rather than on distant countries and different peoples? Or to the idea that ethnographic museums offer a perfect setting for the enactment of key terms in the vocabulary of liberal governments such as social inclusion, multiculturalism and diversity? This is undoubtedly what a number of museum theorists and anthropologists have recently advocated: that museums can be therapeutic institutions and places where communities that have previously been excluded can gain recognition through representation.14 At a time when Islamophobia and extreme nationalist parties are on the rise across Europe, it may also be the duty of ethnographic museums to articulate an alternative kind of politics. But if so, how effective can they be in countering prejudice and stereotyping? Will the existing contents of those museums suffice for telling the sorts of stories that contemporary communities want to relate and hear, or should ethnographic museums reorient themselves towards addressing traumatic events in European history (such as the Holocaust) or the commemoration of more positive developments such as the abolition of slavery? For a group of museums that were founded through con- tact with communities and countries far beyond Europe, might it not be better to avoid Eurocentrism and xenophobia by privileging global interconnectedness and cosmopolitanism? Perhaps this is where the new technologies may be able to assist. Since the turn of the millennium the development of virtual versions of museums has enabled many people to make their first visit to an ethnographic museum via the Internet. In fact, online visitors now outnumber on-site visitors for many museums around the world. Rather than seeing the popularity of digital avatars of museums as a threat, a growing number of ethnographic museums have seen the potential to use the new technologies as a means for disseminating knowledge about their collections globally and improving access to them in a democratizing vein. They may even consider such activities as a type of virtual repatriation.15 Although worries remain about the lack of control over digitized museum objects and the uneven availability of computers or Internet access around the world, in general the digitally distributed museum has huge potential for facilitating the sharing of ethnographic museum resources (Harris forthcoming). In fact it is the Internet that may allow ethnographic museums to overcome some of the limitations we spoke of earlier. As a technology that facilitates communication across national boundaries, it allows diasporic communities to be reconnected with the artefactual diaspora that can be found in European museums (Basu 2011). In so doing, it may also help us to answer the question of how ethnographic museums should respond to globalization. Most contemporary theorists do not believe that globalization inevitably leads to homogenization, or that the impact of the global corporations and their goods automatically eclipses the local . As anthropologists know only too well, it is the relationship between the two the local and the global that generates frictions of both a positive and negative kind.16 If ethnographic museums could be reconfigured (both physically and virtually) to take account of the unprecedented movement of people and their products in the twenty-first century, and if they adopted more dynamic conceptions of the relationships between people and things than was the case in the past, then perhaps we could be confident about their future prospects. Who needs an ethnographic museum ? Although the digital may substantially augment access to ethnographic museums in the future, there is no doubt that actual visitors still delight in the somatic experience of encountering objects in person. Additionally, as Nicholas Thomas (2010) reminds us, tangible things can forge readings of history that are significantly different from those derived purely from textual sources and can generate commentaries on colonialism (such as his own) that are less hegemonic and one-sided than earlier accounts. But above all, it is the material complexity, technological creativeness, visual appeal, and sheer unfamiliarity of the contents of ethnographic museums that remain a powerful attraction for millions of people. Ethnographic museums can be places for discovery and dreaming, for memories and meetings: sites where the freedom to wonder at the variety and ingenuity of man-made things is not yet dead. We look forward to hearing whether speakers and delegates at the conference in July will agree that the ethnographic museum still has a life.17 The RAI relies on its Fellows and Members for their support. This is especially discuss any matter concerning membership, please email admin@therai. 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