MUSEUM news 50 LEFT: Wifredo Lam, Le bruit, 1943. © ADAGP, Paris, 2015 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, dist. RMN- Grand Palais/rights reserved. HIMALAYA TRIBAL Vichy—The Himalayas, which in Sanskrit means the “abode of the snow,” include the highest mountain peaks in the world. Despite its rugged terrain, the mountain chain, which spreads over five countries (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet), is home to sixty-five million people. While the range’s massive size (more than 2,500 kilometers long) has been instrumental in preventing China and India from directly influencing one another, the “Roof of the World” is a place where internal interactions have developed and where both unique and hybrid cultures have sprung up because of migrations and the adaptation of regional traditions to local ecosystems. The little-known art of the Himalayan peoples, which are closely associated with the autochthonous religions and were discovered by the West in the 1960s, reflects the diversity of the area particularly well. Himalaya Tribal, the Musée des Arts d’Afrique et d’Asie de Vichy’s new exhibition, is a fine introduction to the creations of these peoples and features magnificent objects that tell the stories of origin myths, seasonal festivities, and funerary and magical rites. Masks, figures, jewelry, and shamanic objects, drawn both from museums and private collections by the show’s curator, François Pannier (of Galerie Toit du Monde, Paris), will be on view at the Vichy Museum until November 1, 2015. Highlights of the exhibition include a magnificent Bhairava mask from the Kathmandu Valley, a striking Magar shaman’s suit of armor, a protective figure from the Terai Valley, and a smiling Tibetan citipati mask. greatest artists and writers of his time. His own literary works are among some of the most innovative of the last century, especially in the autobiographical genre (L’Âge d’homme, 1939). Despite possessing so many talents, Leiris chose African ethnography as a profession, working fi rst in the African department at the Musée du Trocadéro, which opened in 1938. From the very beginning, he was engaged, militant in his denunciation of colonialism and racism, and mindful of crediting Africans with the creativity that fanatics of their art and ethnologists had taken from them. He was a member of the Dakar- Djibouti Expedition, led by Marcel Griaule. This was one of the fi rst major French ethnological expeditions, the purpose of which was to obtain objects for the collection of the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro. In the course of the expedition, Leiris wrote his noted work, L’Afrique fantôme. Bringing together elements of ethnography, art, and literature, this exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, was produced in partnership with the Musée du Quai Branly and the Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet. It is the fi rst major show dedicated to this fascinating individual. It will be on view until September 14, 2015. BELOW: Mask, citipati. Tibet. Wood. H: 30 cm. Jean Rosain Collection. © Bertrand Holsnyder. RIGHT: Mask, ciwara kun. Bamana, Mali. Wood, beads, cowries. H: 74 cm. Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. © 2015, MQB. Photo: Patrick Gries/ Bruno Descoings/Scala, Florence. BELOW: Michel Leiris in a tent, Gallabat, Sudan, May 13, 1932. © Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet/Suzanne Nagy, 1973. ABOVE: Poster for the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
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