Tuesday November 1 - Paris

Woke to a very chilly, overcast day.  Our first stop today was one I'd been looking forward to very much:  the Musee du quai Branly.  Believe it or not, I have not been to Paris since the Branly opened about 10 years ago.

The Branly is a museum of (for lack of a better word) tribal or "Native People's" art from around the world.  I was amazed by the beauty of the installations and the art itself.  The building was designed by architect Jean Nouvel, the same person who designed the Arab Institute here.  From the outside I wouldn't say the building is particularly beautiful.  But on the inside, where display cases are set off against black walls making them look like jewel cases, it is stunning.  And the examples of art from the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia are some of the most beautiful I've seen.  We had a guided tour for about an hour and half that took us completely around the world. 

I had a special treat at the quay Branly - I'd noticed a poster outside advertising a work called THE RIVER by Charles Sandison.  This happens to be an artist whose work I own; I own a video projection based on Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species.  I assumed that the work had come and gone but when we entered I was thrilled to see that it appears to be a permanent installation and it's the first thing you encounter as you enter the museum.  It serves as a vehicle to visually convey the flow of cultures and ideas that you are about experience in the vitrines below.  Text from the quai Branly website says it much better:

"Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a river of moving words projected with varying rhythms and concentrations along the whole of the ramp leading up to its source: the collections area.  16,597 names of all the peoples and geographic locations displayed in the museum's collections accompany the flow of visitors in this way.

The installation is brought to life by software that combines speech and hydrological cycles, mixing simulation techniques intended to create artificial life and to illustrate the laws of physics.  The wealth of cultures flows like the words through time and space, like water. This also allows us to observe human diversity by contemplating the channels and canyons that mark its surface, engraved by the flood of language. Visitors can take every chance to imagine the relationships, to allow themselves to be captivated by the movements of exchange of these signs, to bring them together, interpret them and dream them."

Charles Sandison's THE RIVER

By the time we exited, a light rain had begun to fall making the day even more raw than it had felt before.  Had lunch at a cafe at the Branly before dashing to the Musees des Arts Decoratifs to see an exhibition of avant garde fashion designer Hussein Chalayan.

Returned the hotel after this and stayed local for a casual dinner in the neighborhood.