Meocha Belle 6/18
Today we visited Musee du Quai Branly. From Bill's explanation of its concept to the products sold in its gift shop, I was highly disturbed. The architecture was said to be a birth canal giving life to the peoples represented in the collections. Just that description alone through me off and as I started to take notice of the exibits, I realized that this was a space fostering colonial rule and falsely displaying it as culture. Afrique, Asie, and Australie were all made a mockery of, to unknowing visitors because of this space. The only people besides our Paris Noir cohort that were there were recognizably affluent older white couples and small children of racialized backgrounds. So for them, these exhibits were seen as objects of their respective origins. To me, a person who has studied colonial rule and empire extensively, it was apparent that the space was a result of such influences. But to the seniors and children, this was not quite as visible. They just took the medium of representation as artifact and therefore true records of history and culture. And knowing this bothered me so much that I could not even browse inside the gift shop.
~Paris Noir 2010
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