The musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac is offering visitors a brand new sound trail through its permanent collections. More than 120 relays throughout the Main Collections Level broadcast sounds linked to the objects, display cases or geographical areas. This acoustic framework is made up of instrumental sounds, narratives, spoken voices, singing, urban or natural soundscapes and original compositions that give context to the works and objects.

The sound elements – creations, archive extracts or field recordings – are broadcast on a continuous basis or are triggered automatically as the visitor approaches. The result is a polyphonic score in which the sound presence is intermittent and spread harmoniously throughout the museum space.

This new perennial sound trail enriches the visitor experience by combining the tangible and intangible dimensions of the collections; it provides a lively narrative and diversifies the keys to understanding civilisations, and it is also in line with new multi-sensory cultural practices.

This innovation is the fruit of multi-disciplinary work involving the museum's scientific teams, in close collaboration with sound engineers and designers, composers and specialists in field ethnography, and curated by Éric de Visscher, a specialist in heritage and sound creation.

In keeping with its year-round offerings in the performing arts, cinema and knowledge, the museum invites visitors to explore the intangible dimensions of the arts and civilisations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

Around the event

Between September and December 2024, all areas of the museum will echo this new museographical trail and this emphasis on sound, through an exceptional programme linked to the intangible and the orality, including shows, concerts, musical epics, poetry, performances of oral literature, cinema, talks and study days.

THE MUSEUM'S SOUND ART RESIDENCY PROGRAMME

Echoing its commitment to the intangible heritage of the cultures it represents and to contemporary creation, the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac established its Sound Art Residency programme in 2022. The programme provides an endowment of 8,000 euros and funding for the production of a sound work based on the museum's collections, issues and themes. Each year, this creative support programme welcomes an artist from one of the four continents represented in the museum's collections (Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Americas) to create a unique artistic project.

Aïda Adilbek, second winner of the Sound Residency programme (2023).
"With a song your body will be embraced by earth" ("Öleñmen jer qoïnyna kirer deneñ")" audiovisual installation

Youmna Saba, first winner of the Sound Residency programme (2022).
"The Unspoken Reserve" installation

Junior Mvunzi, third winner of the Sound Residency programme (2024).
Currently in residency/creation at the museum and at Le Fresnoy for the production of "Musika Automatika" installation.