Un artiste voyageur en Micronésie, l'univers flottant de Paul Jacoulet

The Musée du Quai Branly will open an intriguing new exhibition on February 26. Un artiste voyageur en Micronésie, l'univers flottant de Paul Jacoulet explores the work of the noted French printmaker, who traveled to Japan in 1899 and would ultimately spent the greater part of his life there. While in Asia, Jacoulet traveled to Korea, China and Micronesia, which he visited numerous times to paint portraits of the inhabitants. Through his engravings and drawings, he represents the Micronesian men and women he encountered in a sensitive and aesthetically distinctive way that is at once intimate, stylish, and ethnographic. 

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Anatomies de l'étrange

On view at the Musée d'histoire naturelle Lille is Anatomies de l'étrange, an exhibition that seeks to question the notion of fantasy through its multifaceted collections. Visitors will encounter legendary monsters and extraordinary objects reflecting distant societies, often misunderstood and fantasized.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

The American Indian: Art and Culture between Myth and Reality

This winter, De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam is presenting an exhibition showcasing Native American artistic traditions. Exploring seven different geographical regions, the exhibition paints a picture of the rich and diverse arts and cultures of North American peoples. More than two hundred works of art and artefacts will transport visitors to the prairies of the Midwest, the plains around the Great Lakes, the shores of California, Canada’s west coast, and the homes of the Navajo and the Inuit. 

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam

Ainu - Antenati spriti e orsi

As part of the celebrations for the centenary of Fosco Maraini’s birth, the Museo delle Culture in Lugano and the Museo Nazionale della Montagna in Turin have organized a temporary exhibition about the Ainu people. The exhibition displays sixty-two photographs taken by Fosco Maraini among the Ainu on Hokkaido island between 1938 and 1940, as well as in 1954, 1963 and 1971. There is also a series of objects belonging to the Ainu material culture.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Muzeo Nazionale della Montagna

Jewelry from the Roof of the World

On now at the Fondation Baur in Geneva is Jewelry from the Roof of the World, an exhibition devoted to ornaments from Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Northern India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Sourced entirely from the collection of Colette and Jean-Pierre Ghysels, these astonishing works reveal peoples, civilisations, and cultures whose memory is gradually fading. They convey also the passion and perseverance which took the Ghysels to every continent of the planet in their search for exquisite jewelry, always guided by two basic criteria: quality and beauty. Seduced by the richness of the ancestral traditions of Asia, they have unceasingly assembled these witnesses of vanishing worlds.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Fondation Baur

Chavín at the Museum Rietberg

On view at Zürich's Museum Rietberg until March 10 is Chavín, an exhibition exploring one of South America's most ancient known cultural centers. In the narrow valley of Callejón de Conchucos, behind the snow-covered mountains of the Cordillera Blanca in the Peruvian highlands, lie the ruins of the ceremonial complex of Chavín de Huántar. Erected at least 2,500 years before the Inca, the monumental temple would have involved vast expenditure and enormous labour. This exhibition features an array of marvelous Peruvian works excavated from the theatrically conceived ceremonial center, and unveils the worldview and system of meaning it sough to embody.

View the exhibition's official website.

Mortar for the preparation of psychoactive substances  -  900–550 BC

Stirrup-spout vessel depicting a transformation  -  1200–500 BC

Anthropomorphic head  -  900–550 BC

Mouth mask of a priest  -  800–550 BC

Information and images courtesy of the Museum Rietberg

Vodou at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

Entering its final weeks at the Canadian Museum of Civilization is Vodou, a remarkable exhibition featuring more than 300 works from one of the world’s most important collections of Vodou art. This showcase offers a rare opportunity for visitors to better understand a complex spiritual tradition –– its beliefs, rituals, and materials –– from the viewpoint of its belivers. In addition to its impressive range of ritual objects, Vodou presents first-person accounts from practitioners in Canada’s Haitian community.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Civilization