SPRING AT THE MUSÉE DU QUAI BRANLY Paris—This promises to be an exciting season at the Musée du Quai Branly. From March 4 through May 18, 2014, the museum will host two exhibitions devoted produced by curators at the institution, and that while they will examine their respective subjects in detail, they also will remain accessible, and undoubtedly first, Bois Sacré—Initiation dans les Forêts Guinéennes (Sacred Wood: Initiation in the Guinean Forests) is the work of Aurélien Gaborit, curator of the African collections at the Musée du Quai Branly and at the Pavillon des Sessions at the Louvre. The exhibition centers around an exceptional and is completed by small figures and other objects from the Toma and neighboring peoples of Guinea 40 ART on view to Africa. While different in their subject matter, they have in common that they are being attractive, to a general audience. The group of masks from the museum’s collection and Liberia. It will be the first exhibition to offer a close look at the Poro system of initiation, initially adopted by the Toma, which then spread, albeit with variations, to most of Anthropomorphic figures, vololibaï. Toma, Guinea. Musée du Quai Branly. From Bois Sacré. Photo: Claude Germain, © Musée du Quai Branly. the peoples of the Guinean forests, particularly the Bassa and the Senufo. The exhibition will examine the Poro’s origins in the sixteenth century and explore its functions based on explanations of the ways in which the exhibited objects were used and the roles they played—although the revelation of that information as well as the teaching and stages of the Poro is contrary to the principles of secrecy on which the organization is based. ... Elsewhere on the museum’s east mezzanine level, “L’Atlantique noir” de Nancy Cunard: “Negro Anthology” (1931–1934) is something of an opposite to Bois Sacrés. Here, the concept of the avant-garde replaces that of the traditional, and jazz, poetry readings, and political discussions fill the silence of the forest. This exhibition of archives centers on Nancy Cunard, a fascinating personality who was active in the 1920s and 1930s. She was a poet, an art collector, a journalist, and a muse for artists, who posed for Man Ray on many occasions and inspired more than one poem by Aragon. Representative of a time when the intellectual sphere was politically involved, Cunard took a stand against colonialism and racism. She rallied her network to produce Negro Anthology, a richly illustrated 855-page work that appeared in 1934. This non-conformist Englishwoman’s life story and work are illustrative of a period of intellectual and political involvement and enable us to evoke aspects of the African diaspora of the 1930s. The exhibition was created by Sarah Frioux-Salgas, curator of documentation and the media library at the Musée du Quai Branly, and we wish her the same success with this project as she enjoyed with her preceding one, Présence Africaine, une Tribune, un Mouvement, un Réseau (2009–2011, Paris and Dakar). Far left: Mask, kodal-kpelie. Djimini or Senufo, Côte d’Ivoire. Wood, zinc, fur. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. 73.1961.1.10. Left: Mask, angbaï. Toma, Guinea. Wood. H: 49 cm. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. 75.2024. Below: Mask. Toma, Guinea. Wood. H: 45 cm. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. 71.1933.40.172. Left: Negro Anthology 1934. © Rights reserved, the heirs of Nancy Cunard. Lower left: Jacques-André Boiffard. Bracelets en ivoire de Nancy Cunard à La Chapelle Réanville, c. 1930. © ADAGP, Paris 2013/rights reserved by the Centre Pompidou. Right: Raoul Ubac. Masques mende (Sierra Leone) et bracelet. 1931. Raoul Ubac, © Musée du Quai Branly/© ADAGP, 2013.
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