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The exhibition presents a prestigious selection of masks from the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac's collection. Theses pieces which come from the anciant musée de l'Homme's collection and from the musée national des arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie's collection includes major old works as well as more recent pieces which underlines the permanence of the use of mask in traditionnal societies.
The exhibition offers to the public numerous aspects of the diversity of materials and uses attributed to masks. More generally, the journey shows how different cultures of the world have shaped the faces of deities and spirits in order to enter into contact with the forces of the invisible.
Through a selection of about 100 masks, the exhibition reveals a variety of forms that bring into play magical and invisible forces emanating from the human face, as well as the comedy and drama of our relationship to the unknown and the invisible.
- Exhibition curator: M. Yves Le Fur, Director of Collections and Heritage at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
- Number of works: 100
- Surface area required: 600 - 800 m²
- Catalogue of the exhibition available, English and French versions (144 pages, musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac's Edition)
This exhibition has been presented at:
- Carré Plantagenêt – Musée d’archéologie et d’histoire, Le Mans, France, from December 4th , 2015, to March 20th, 2016
- Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, April 25th to June 30th, 2015
- National Museum of China, Beijing, China, from June 16th to August 16th, 2013
- National Museum of Bahrain, Bahrain, from March 3rd to June 30th 2008
