ART on view In the Marquesan language, mata means both face and eye. Hoata can have many meanings, 76 including clear, pure, transparent, brilliant, and white. When combined to form one word, it denotes a particular Marquesan tattoo design and evokes the notion of an eye or gaze that is well informed. It is the correlate of matavaa, to wake up or open up the eyes. Today, matavaa is the name for the festival of Marquesan arts that is held there every two years and has the sense of opening the eyes, especially of the youth, to Marquesan culture. The intention of the exhibition Matahoata – Arts et Société aux îles Marquises (Matahoata – Arts and Society in the Marquesas Islands) is to present the richness of the arts of the Land of Men, Te Henua Enana or Te Fenua Enata,1 for all to see and appreciate. More than 300 objects, shown in their historical context, attest to the continuity of the Marquesan aesthetic style from the eighteenth century to our day. They are surrounded by drawings, including some twenty portraits of Marquesans, many of whose names are known. There are also photographs, books, and videos highlighting signifi cant people, objects, and ideas. It is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Marquesan art ever mounted. A large number of the objects in the exhibition come from the Musée du Quai Branly, but many others have been borrowed from museums and private collections in Germany, Great Britain, and Switzerland, and a signifi cant number come from regional museums throughout France. The exhibition unfolds chronologically and consists of seven sections, the fi rst fi ve of which focus on the arts from the late eighteenth and fi rst decades of the nineteenth centuries, when Marquesan culture was little changed by Western contact. The fi rst section opens with a well-loved myth describing the creation of the archipelago through the story of the god Atea building a house for his wife, Atanua, in one night. The names of the different islands denote parts of the house or moments during its construction. MATAHOATA Arts and Society in the Marquesas Islands By Carol S. Ivory FIG. 1 (above): Ornament, ivi poo. Marquesas Islands. 20th century. Human bone. H: 4 cm. Ex James Hooper, United Kingdom. Musée de Tahiti et des Îles - Te Fare Manaha, inv. 80.08.03. © Musée de Tahiti et des Îles - Te Fare Manaha. Photo: Danee Hazama. FIG. 2 (left): Anthropomorphic sculpture depicting a tiki. Marquesas Islands. 19th century. Wood. H: 38 cm. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. 71.1887.31.25. © MQB. Photo: Claude Germain. FIG. 3 (right): Anthropomorphic sculpture depicting a tiki. Marquesas Islands. 19th century. Wood. H: 117 cm. Musée du Quai Branly, inv. 70.2000.12.1 © MQB. Photo: Patrick Gries, Bruno Descoings.
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