Happenings

***CONTINUATION***
Maison d'Ailleurs proposes a face-to-face: the original artistic production of The Easter Island (statues of stone and wood, weapons, jewelry ) facing the fantasies and speculations of the Western world concerning this island (stories, films, comic strips).
The innovative nature of this exhibition is enhanced by the exceptional quality of the pieces presented. Mainly from Swiss’ public and private collections, the majority of pieces are also shown to the public for the first time.
Web site of the exhibition

The Penn Museum opens a twelve-month interactive project to investigate the perspectives of the public with regard to the massive continent of Africa. Imagine Africa with the Penn Museum will present more than fifty objects relating to eight broad topics: beauty, strength, power, healing, fashion, change, creation, and divinity. Through a variety of engagement opportunities, visitors will be asked to provide feedback on the objects and the content they see. The installation is a step toward the museum’s long-term plans to reenvision its African gallery for a twenty-first-century audience.

Reviving the idea of the cabinet of curiosities and in response to 2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature J.M.G. Le Clézio’s choice of theme—“Museums are worlds”—this exhibition features historic and contemporary works from Haiti, Mexico, Africa, and Vanuatu.
As for André Malraux, for J.M.G. Le Clézio, there is no “hierarchy in art.” As such, the exhibition revives the idea of the cabinet of curiosities, jumbling together a collection of works as diverse as historic paintings, revolutionary engravings, Haitian paintings, mats from Vanuatu, Voodoo objects, Mexican ex-votos, ethnographic items from different civilizations, and contemporary works, transcending geographical and temporal boundaries to blend folk art and high art according to the same viewpoint.

***NEW***
- Living in Style: African Art of Everyday Life at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) presents beautifully crafted utilitarian objects created by men and women from traditional societies across the African continent. Works on view in the exhibition include domestic implements, containers, furniture, weapons, jewellery, and apparel. These articles were created not only to fulfil a functional purpose, but also to be expressive works of art and valued possessions that communicated important cultural ideas within their home societies. Whether in a South African wire work bottle or a Chokwe chair from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the useful and the symbolic commingle to give rise to works that tell many simultaneous stories both current and historic.

It consists of a large collection of objects, photographs, and postcards that together illustrate how culturally and geographically diverse peoples exchanged goods. As Julia Nicholson, the exhibition’s curator, states: “All the objects have a story to tell, not just about their origin, but also about the people who traded them and the relationship that trade creates.”

The collection of "Alessandro Passaré" is made of 400 artwork of Arican Art, Pre-Columbian Art and Oceanian, 9000 slides, manuscripts as travel diaries. Most of the artwork are from private collections and are exhibit for the first time.
Web site of the exhibition

North America's Arizona-Mexico border represented the outer rim of Mesoamerican civilization in the pre-Columbian period, and later became the northern frontier of Spanish-Indian exchange following the European conquest of Mexico. The Arizona State Museum recently opened a long-term exhibition centering around the region, entitled Many Mexicos: Vistas de la Frontera, which strives to interpret the broad sweep of Mexican history from the pre-Columbian epoch to the political disputes of today, all through the particular lens of Arizona and its borderlands.

The new temporary exhibition of the musée Dapper will provide the opportunity to discover the distinct roles of masks in Africa and their social and political meaning in the Carnivals of the Caribbean populations.

The Pinacothèque in Paris presents the most important archaeological discovery during the last decade in Mexico: the jade mosaic masks.
These exceptional masks, entirely restored by the most eminent specialists in Maya archaeology represents the faces of the deity. Created for the prestigious governors, of the maya cities, their mission was to guarantee them the eternal life after death.
Web site of the exhibition.

From ingenious tool to ornament, souvenir, and symbol of cultural revival, this exhibition explores the changing form and function of the Māori matau (fish-hook).
Without the technology to extract metal, Māori originally made their hooks from wood, bone, stone, and shell. Early European explorers considered matau ‘ill-made’ and ‘of doubtful efficacy’. In fact, the design was sophisticated and highly effective, as modern-day fishers have recently rediscovered.
Post-contact, Māori quickly integrated European tools and technologies with the traditional matau form that had served them so well. Meanwhile, bone and stone matau acquired new significance as highly collectible artefacts and, more recently, as personal adornment.
The exhibition features several exquisite examples of contemporary hei matau made from pounamu, ivory, and wood.
Discover the intriguing story of Māori matau and their many roles – from catching fish to symbol of cultural pride. Web site of the exhibition