robert curgenven
Collections have their Soundtrack - Musée du Quai Branly, Paris

Stereo sound in international collection
Permanent exhibition on the Collections plateau of the
Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac
37 quai Branly, 75007 Paris

Dates : Tuesday, September 17, 2024 to Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Silent Landscapes No. 2 and Selected Archival DAT recordings 2000-2010 installed to play in Oceania collection exhibition 

Overviews & reviews of the project (all in French)
Radio France (link)
La Croix (link)
Artscape (link)
FNAC (link) 
La Parisien (link) 
Connaissance des Arts (link) 
Quai Branly (link) - Interview with Eric de Visscher
French Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (Higher Education & Research) (link)

Curator of the Sound Musuem Tour - Eric de Visscher, inspector of artistic creation at the Ministry of Culture
Assistant Commissioner - Thomas Tilly, composer and field sound engineer, artistic advisor
Sound Design - Narrative; Production: Cecile Cros; Assisted by: Tiphaine Merour and Charlie Dervaux; Sound designers: Simon Cacheux, Julia Griner, Luc Martinez

With recordings from Hélène Guiot, Stéphane Douady, Myriam Pruvot, Anna Raimondo, Pierre Hamon, Fernand Deroussen, Douglas Quin, Giovanni Sciarrino AKA John Noise Manis, David Fanshawe, Thomas Tilly, Michael Allen Z Prime, Luc Martinez, Simon Cacheux, Robin Minard, François-Xavier Ricaut, CNRS - Laboratoire Pangloss - LACITO, Amandine Gasc, Julie Rousse, Vincent Blouch, Isaac Youb, Jorge Quilaqueo, Robert Curgenven, Felix Blume, Label Buda Music, Alexandre François, Daniel Vigne, Michael J. Andersen, Alice Breton, Léa Chevrier, A.P. Elkin.

This project is part of the implementation of the Musee Resonnant project, designed by Eric de Visscher with the artist Thomas Tilly, which aims to offer a new type of visit through the overall sound system of the museum.

The approach of the Musee Resonnant of the Musee du Quai Branly consists in affirming that sounds (whether music, voices, environmental sounds) contribute to an enrichment of the visiting experience. They complement - without opposing - the elements presented to the eye which, as a result, no longer impose themselves as the sole point of access to the museum works. To do this, this sound presence is thought of as a whole, ranging from discrete and localized sources to immersive situations, passing through “surprises”, sometimes ensuring a continuous presence, sometimes acting intermittently, without ever obstructing other sensory perceptions.

With a brand new sound trail, the Musee du Quai Branly is transforming the experience offered to visitors to its permanent collections devoted to the arts and civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

The Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac offers its visitors a brand new sound tour through the permanent collections. More than 120 speakers spread across the Collections plateau broadcast sounds related to objects, display cases or geographical areas. This acoustic framework is composed of instrumental sounds, stories, spoken and sung voices, urban or natural sound ambiances and original compositions that help contextualize the works and objects.

The sound elements - creations, archive extracts or field recordings - are broadcast permanently or automatically triggered when the visitor approaches. The result is a polyphonic score where the sound presence is intermittent and harmoniously distributed throughout the museum space.

This new permanent sound trail enriches the visitor experience by combining the material and immaterial dimensions of the collections; it provides a lively narrative and diversifies the keys to understanding civilizations; it is also part of new multisensory cultural practices. This innovation is the result of multidisciplinary work in which the museum's scientific teams participated, in close collaboration with sound engineers and designers, composers and specialists in field ethnography, under the curatorship of Éric de Visscher, a specialist in heritage and sound creation.

In keeping with the offerings proposed throughout the year, to all audiences, in the fields of performing arts, cinema and knowledge, the Museum thus resolutely brings its visitors into the immaterial dimensions of the arts and civilisations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.