MUSEUM News 46 elephant hides. This exotic combination is displayed alongside twentieth-century photographs, some anonymous and others by Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra. Somewhat startlingly, the subjects of all of these photographs are white men, women, and children in their daily pursuits: at the beach, at home, in their gardens, at weddings, in school, etc. The resulting juxtaposition of time periods, continents, and points of view is intended to stimulate reflection on the nature of art, of knowledge, and of the ways in which both creators and subjects are perceived. THAT MOST CURIOUS WORLD MUSEUM Hornu—Rather than being cause for frustration, the extended closure of Tervuren’s Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC) for renovation has motivated its staff to find new ways of exposing its various collections to the public. Thanks to its innovative and active policy of organizing off-site exhibitions, international audiences have had rare opportunities to be able to view parts of the institution’s incredible holdings in contexts outside the museum’s walls. One of the most recent of these is a fascinating show at the Musée des Arts Contemporains in Hornu, Belgium, titled Ce Tant Curieux Musée du Monde (That Most Curious World Museum), which is a fascinating reflection on the nature and importance of the MRAC’s encyclopedic collections. Curator Laurent Busine has put together a group of varied African artifacts from the old museum (small drums, receptacles, masks, etc.) along with related European objects (plaster molds of Africans’ faces) and natural history specimens such as insects, giant termite mounds, and Slit drums. Collection of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale. © Ph. De Gobert. Beetles. Collection of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale. © Ph. De Gobert. Pende masks. Collection of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale. © Ph. De Gobert.
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