Persona — Étrangement humain — Musée du quai Branly — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 26 → November 13, 2016

The technological advances of recent decades have given our Western societies a scenario worthy of the greatest science fiction films.

Many objects have a status that is closer to that of a person or a creature than to that of a simple object. Art objects — Western or non-Western, folk or contemporary — or high-tech products (robots, machines, etc.) are attributed unexpected capabilities for carrying out actions, making them quasi-people.

How does mankind create an unusual and intimate relationship with objects? How does the inanimate become animate? What does it say about us, about our society?

At the time of these great debates, at a time when our concept of what is human is shaken, as its boundaries are constantly extended, the Musée du quai Branly presents an exhibition for understanding this transfer that is taking place in all cultures between the human and the non-human, and the special and personalised relationship that connects them. Through 230 pieces — statues, sculptures, installations, paintings, robots, automatons, film clips — the exhibition sheds light on these “strange humans” and invites visitors to experience this encounter.

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Curators: Emmanuel Grimaud, anthropologue, chercheur at the CNRS; Anne-Christine Taylor-Descola, anthropologue, directeur de recherche émérite, CNRS.

Curators associated: Denis Vidal, anthropologue, directeur de recherche, IRD; Thierry Dufrêne, professeur d’histoire de l’art, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense.

West Mezzanine