今天有二則新聞可以看出美術館或博物館正扮演著文化與文化間互相認識、溝通、欣賞的角色，在全球充滿文化衝突之際，文化外交的重要性愈發重要。首先是法國經過了回教徒年輕人暴動事件後，近日啟用了一個專門展覽「非西方」藝術品的博物館the Musée du Quai Branly，這是繼1986年專門收集印象派作品的Musée d’Orsay 開幕以來，最大的美術館。法國總統席哈克特別前往開幕，裡面大都以非洲亞洲文化為主。藉此宣示法國對不同文化的開放心胸。(第一篇)

另外，大英博物館也同樣有遠大的目標，自2002年新任館長領導下，就不僅在過去的收藏品上著力，特別要重視和現代社會的溝通，展示了從世界各個新興或激烈變動的地區來的藝術品。他們相信，博物館的一大重要任務就是讓人們更能體會、接受文化多樣性。文化與政治的關聯性在現在的社會中，不但不被迴避而且更因為政治的衝突而益顯重要。西方國家因此特別在文化活動中，加強不同文化的溝通，增進人類的合諧。(第二篇)


Paris opens a museum for non-Western art
By Alan Riding The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2006
PARIS: President Jacques Chirac has always liked African and Asian art, and he demonstrated that with a flourish this week when he inaugurated the Musée du Quai Branly, a large, eye- catching building that cost €238 million and is devoted entirely to non- Western art. It is the first major museum to open in Paris since the Musée d’Orsay in 1986.

Designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, the museum stands on a prime piece of real estate, on the Left Bank of the Seine, one block from the Eiffel Tower.

Its gallery space is no less impressive: Half is used to display 3,500 objects from the museum’s collection of 300,000 works from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, and the rest is given over to temporary exhibitions.

The museum’s aim is both simple and ambitious: to treat non-Western art with the same deference as, say, the Louvre gives to Greek, Roman and Renaissance art and the Musée d’Orsay gives to the Impressionists.

In other words, it is an artistic project with the eminently political objective of proclaiming France’s openness to the world.

"There is no hierarchy among the arts, just as there is no hierarchy among peoples," Chirac said at the opening ceremony Tuesday. "It is upon this conviction - of the equal dignity of the cultures of the world - that this museum is founded."

Further, he went on, the museum is a homage to peoples who have suffered conquest, violence and humiliation. It seeks to promote among the public at large, he said, a different, more open and respectful view, "dispelling the clouds of ignorance, condescension and arrogance that in the past have often nourished distrust, contempt and rejection."

The museum will open to the public Friday, but it has already been visited by museum directors, anthropologists, private sponsors and the media.

And, as occurred with, say, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin, the first work of art to be examined here has been Nouvel’s building itself.

While the museum comprises four connected buildings, one with an exterior wall covered with vegetation, the dominant feature is a 180-meter-long, or 600-foot-long, exhibition hall, which mirrors the gentle bend in the Seine and is peppered with 26 multicolored protruding boxes.

This pierlike structure is suspended so visitors can wander freely around a large and soon-to-be-lush garden, itself separated from the busy traffic of the Quai Branly by a 12-meter-high wall.

The museum’s atrium is tall enough to accommodate a 14-meter-high American Indian totem pole from British Columbia, while a glass tower displays part of the museum’s collection of musical instruments.

A curving 180-meter-long ramp, inevitably reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiral at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, leads to the display area.

Unusually, that area is one large gallery divided by leather-covered partitions into the collection’s four main regions.

Within each, free-standing display cases create a kind of warren that encourages visitors to explore rather than follow a particular path. And inside the museum, the mysterious boxes protruding from the building provide small thematic rooms.

With individual objects highlighted in a generally dark environment, the effect is dramatic, with a clear emphasis on the pieces’ aesthetic appeal and relatively little contextual information provided by labels.

The range of works is impressive, with African and Oceanic collections arguably the strongest. The Americas section embraces both pre-Columbian and American Indian art, while the Asian works address daily life from Indonesia to Vietnam (ancient Asian masterpieces remain in the Musée Guimet across the Seine).

Yet even now the Musée du Quai Branly (pronounced Kay BranLEE) remains inseparable from politics.


Entr’acte: Museum with mission: Global enlightenment
Alan Riding
THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2006
LONDON If art can be considered a language, the British Museum can reasonably claim to be polyglot thanks to its large and eclectic collection and its practiced interpretation of global cultures. Indeed, it was with just such a mandate - to present the world to the world in the spirit of the Enlightenment - that it was founded in 1753.

In the two centuries that followed, it profited handsomely from Britain’s imperial reach and trading links, but it always emphasized the scientific and educational nature of its work. And to this day, visitors flocking to view its Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek treasures are charged no entrance fee.

Now, under Neil MacGregor, its director since 2002, the museum has embarked on a new mission of communication with the modern world, not only presenting parts of its collection in countries where it once gathered art and artifacts, but also bringing into its galleries art from regions undergoing rapid and unpredictable change.

Put differently, by exploiting its historic openness to the world, the British Museum is engaged in an innovative and subtle form of cultural diplomacy, one inspired less by a desire to promote Britain’s image than by a belief in the political importance of spreading awareness and acceptance of cultural diversity.

As it happens, its first action along these lines was prompted by an emergency: after the Baghdad Museum was looted in April 2003 as American soldiers stood by, it took the lead in organizing an international effort to help the Iraqi museum. But since then, the British Museum has developed a more long-term strategy.

Referring to "Treasures of the World’s Cultures," its recent exhibition in Beijing, MacGregor wrote in The Spectator: "This is more than about generating tourism to Britain. How China understands the world around it will be a fundamental question for us in decades to come. Collections like the British Museum’s have an important role to play."

This same show, which included everything from Egyptian mummies and Assyrian reliefs to Islamic astrolabes and Benin bronzes, was previously seen by 1.3 million people in Japan and 600,000 in South Korea. At the same time, along with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum is planning further exhibitions in China showcasing world cultures, starting with Ancient Egypt.

Another priority region is Africa, where the British Museum is able to share its collection - and knowledge - of African art while helping to strengthen African museums. "Hazina: Traditions, Trade and Transitions in Eastern Africa," a show at the Nairobi Gallery through Sept. 30, is a good example of such a partnership. It draws on British and Kenyan collections, but has been organized by a curator from the National Museums of Kenya.

For its Africa program, which also includes projects in Egypt, Mozambique, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali and Ghana, the British Museum has in fact received some British government funding. But the main benefits should accrue to Africa: the program’s declared aim is "to work with museum colleagues in Africa to increase understanding of the rich diversity and cultural heritage of African countries and peoples."

The other face of the British Museum’s cultural strategy is to organize shows in London that highlight world cultures. And here, reflecting a need for greater British understanding of today’s convulsed world and this country’s own increasingly multi-ethnic population, one emphasis is on the Middle East.

Last winter, an immensely successful exhibition at the museum’s Bloomsbury headquarters was "Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia." Yet, as significant as the show’s popularity was the fact that, during a period of diplomatic strains between Iran and the West, the museum was able to borrow exceptional objects from museums in Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Now, through Sept. 2, the British Museum is the host of "Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East," a show that focuses on traditional and modern forms of calligraphic art through about 80 artists whose work has been acquired by the museum over the past 25 years.

"In the 1980s, we went back to our founding principle of collecting everything," said Venetia Porter, the exhibition’s curator. "Over time, we found we had been collecting more past than present. In the Middle East, we stopped in the 1850s. This show is an example of how we can use our collections to look at today’s world - politics and history - through art."

In this case, Porter explained, she chose to refer to the "Middle East" rather than the Islamic world because, while the calligraphic tradition is rooted in Islam’s objection to the portrayal of living beings, the exhibition includes one Israeli artist - Michal Rovner - as well as some Arab Christians. Further, with a good number of the artists now living in the United States and Europe, some examples of figurative art are also on display.