The Louvre wants to renew its vision of non-Western arts

Paris. Desired by Jacques Chirac, the Pavillon des Sessions has long suffered from its isolation within the Louvre Museum, as Laurence des Cars, president of the museum, recalls. Renamed the Five Continents Gallery (see ill.), this space, dedicated to the dialogue between European arts and the arts formerly described as “first”, opened on December 3 with a new entrance (this also allows access to the gallery of Italian and Spanish paintings on the first floor of the building).

Brighter, with a scenography “adapted by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte” according to Laurence des Cars, the gallery presents works from several museums grouped by theme: the scientific manager of the gallery, Aurélien Gaborit, specifies that “the old route was geographical while the new one is based on major themes”. These themes (being born and dying) place the works in an anthropological rather than an artistic perspective, which is confirmed by Barthélémy Etchegoyen Glama (scientific advisor): “The route allows a free comparison of the works, and we have no bias towards formal comparison. » He adds that the thinking of Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia University) on new universalisms influenced the museum’s thinking, with a less overbearing discourse on the works. The Musée du quai Branly lent seventy-seven pieces and contributed to the development of the route.

The visitor, author of his own journey

The renovated route leaves plenty of room for works, some of which are described as “masterpieces”, which indicates the connection with the Sessions Pavilion of the 2000s: the aim was to show that cultures other than Europe could create works of universal significance. The windows, very refined, are not all oriented towards visitors who must therefore circulate around them, and the gallery does not offer a defined route. Each visitor can “build your perspective projects”, according to Barthélémy Etchegoyen Glama, especially since the room texts remain discreet: the works take precedence over the discourse. As for the cartels, they are often located several meters from the windows, which highlights the aesthetics of the works more than their anthropological significance. While some showcases confront different cultures (African statuettes and an Egyptian sculpture), many others contain only one object or work, reinforcing the impression that objects are forms above all. This is the case for the large Moai (Easter Island) head at the entrance to the gallery as for several African masks. The lack of a global timeline also contributes to this impression. The tour leaves visitors free to face the works, but if they do not know the historical context, they will make formal connections.

However, the whole testifies to a reflection by the Louvre which has initiated a process on the origin of its collections, of which around twenty cartels bear traces. These labels detail the entry into the collections of the exhibited pieces, but without constituting a real “search for provenance” contrary to what the museum declares: more than the conditions of acquisition, it is the stages of entry into the collections which are noted. However, this allows us to note that an effigy of a Hawaiian divinity entered the inventory of the Louvre in 1796, witness to the museum’s long-standing interest in non-European cultures.

Finally, a side room presents the history of non-European arts at the Louvre, as well as four emblematic pieces from these collections. A fragment of a Roman bas-relief from Algeria “taken to France in the 19the century “ According to the Cartel reveals in a short video the stages of its journey, without obscuring the colonial context which led to the plundering of entire regions and the creation at the Louvre of a gallery dedicated to Algeria in the mid-19th century. This successful video synthesizes a renewed discourse on the collections which it would have been wise to better illustrate in the rest of the course. The Five Continents gallery therefore constitutes a step in the renewal of the Louvre’s discourse on its collections, but will undoubtedly require an update to more finely integrate research on the globalized history of the arts.