Pugin

Transcript for DVD ROM: The Art of Benin Paris Exhibition Female Presenter The Benin sculptures are fascinating enough in isolation. But when you put them together in a museum, you add a whole new layer of meaning. The French know better than most what a difference a display can make. In the late twentieth century, their museums were split by a fierce debate. It would question the very nature of non-Western objects like these. As the new millennium dawned, Paris awaited the arrival of a new museum. It was located in a prime position in central Paris. It was designed by one of France’s top architects, Jean Nouvel. And the project certainly had friends in high places. Anne-Christine Taylor Jacques Chirac, the former President of France happens to be a … an amateur of, what used to be called in un-regenerate times, primitive art. And he’s actually very knowledgeable about certain… certain domains. Female Presenter At the time, non-Western objects were housed in museums like this. They were the territory of anthropologists and ethnographers. They were seen as scientific evidence, which provided an insight into the culture that made them. But by the time this collection was filmed, anthropological museums were already in trouble. Anne-Christine Taylor It so happens that the… French museums with ethno … large ethnographic collections, essentially the Musée de l’Homme and the Musée des Arts Océaniens et Africains, were somewhat … um… deserted by the public. Nobody really knew much what to do with these collections any more. Female Presenter Jacques Chirac wanted to bring all of France’s collections of works from other civilisations together. The idea was to create a brand new cultural institution. Anne-Christine Taylor The main aim is to …err… exhibit and interest people in cultural diversity. Now the way the museum does this is by using visually spectacular objects to try and capture people’s attention and draw them into the complexities raised by issues of diversity.