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Masquerades and Carnivals at Dapper museum

In Africa, festivities regularly marked the end of the initiation undergone by adolescents to prepare them for adulthood. Harvest home, the coronation of a king or chief, and the commemoration of the deceased would also serve as pretexts for ritual celebration. Masks would be brought out and paraded in front of everyone, inspiring emotion and fascination in equal measure.
Today, masquerades continue to enthuse and enthral crowds attending the major annual festivals and the gatherings held to celebrate special events, such as the election of a head of state or the visit of an important foreign dignitary.
Masquerades and Carnavals, at Dapper Museum in Paris ( France) is from the 5th october 2011 to 15th july 2012.

Maya’s civilisation at quai Branly

Through the presentation of more than 160 exceptional objects belonging to the National Heritage of Guatemala – painted ceramics, steles, cut semiprecious stones, funerary objects, architectural remains, ornaments, etc. – the exhibition retraces the development of Maya civilization, its rise and decline before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1524 C.E., with a chronological visit distinguishing the pre-classical, classical, and post-classical periods.
The exhibition also presents the discoveries made at multiple sites recently studied, such as El Mirador, at the head of a group of fi ve sites selected in 2002 by the Guatemalan government for nomination on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List. This latest research allows for the presentation to the visitor of a greater and more complex conception of Maya culture. The exhibition ends with a more contemporary section integrating multimedia and photographs, permitting the transmission of a broad view of ancient and contemporary Maya culture, and creating a link between past and present.
The exhibition is available up to the 2nd October 2011.

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Māori: Their Treasures Have a Soul

When  the Rugby World Cup is taking place in New Zealand, the musée du quai Branly in Paris (France) presents Māori: Their treasures have a soul”, featuring Māori culture through 250 pieces from the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. This exhibition, never shown before outside New Zealand, is a testimony to a strong and living culture. It affirms a people’s will to master their own future by emphasising tino rangatiratanga: Māori selfdetermination and control over things Māori.

The exhibition presents a great range of artwork, including sculpture, adornment, daily and sacred objects, architectural elements, photographs, audiovisual documents, and so on. It highlights the links between taonga (ancestral Māori treasures) and contemporary art, shedding light on important issues and debates for Māori today.

The exhibition presents Māori culture as seen by Māori, free from Western views and biases. The heart of the exhibition features art that addresses the political, spiritual, and aesthetic developments that have shaped Māori culture.

This exhibition is available until  the 22nd January 2012.