Ce Tant Curieux Musée du Monde

The extended closure of Tervuren’s Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC) for renovation has motivated its staff to find new ways of presenting its various collections to the public. One of the most recent of these is a fascinating show at the Musée des Arts Contemporains in Hornu, Belgium, titled Ce Tant Curieux Musée du Monde (That Most Curious World Museum), which is a reflection on the nature and importance of the MRAC’s encyclopedic collections. Curator Laurent Busine has put together a group of varied African artifacts from the old museum (small drums, receptacles, masks, etc.) along with related European objects (plaster molds of Africans’ faces) and natural history specimens such as insects, giant termite mounds, and elephant hides. This assemblage is displayed alongside twentieth-century photographs, some anonymous and others by Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra.

Visit the MAC website.