a human odyssey between science and society
Why does a museum take the risk of seizing a subject that is not unanimous? Mathilde Beaujean, curator of the exhibition “Migration, a human odyssey”, explains: “As scientists, we wanted to deal with this social fact as another.
In its entirety and long -time long scale, providing the public tangible elements to make a personal opinion. A team made up of historians, archaeologists and anthropologists has therefore gotten through, through videos, maps, texts, art objects and statistics, to stage the long march of humanity.
The route opens on current international migrations, and the rejection they sometimes arouse. “Wave”, “flow”, “flow”, “tsunami”, “submersion” … “hostile speeches often use a vocabulary borrowed from the damage caused by the waters that exacerbate the fear of an invasion”, notes Mathilde Beaujean.
Other terms are sometimes amalgamated without nuance while they cover very diverse realities: “refugees”, “clandestine”, “immigrants”. With pedagogy, the exhibition defines each of them. By advising judiciously that a Westerner installed in a third-world country is most often designated by the term … “expatriate”.
“Refugees”, “illegal”, “immigrants”
The route opens on current international migrations, and the rejection they sometimes arouse. “Wave”, “flow”, “flow”, “tsunami”, “submersion” … “hostile speeches often use a vocabulary borrowed from the damage caused by the waters that exacerbate the fear of an invasion”, notes Mathilde Beaujean.
Other terms are sometimes amalgamated without nuance while they cover very diverse realities: “refugees”, “clandestine”, “immigrants”. With pedagogy, the exhibition defines each of them. By advising judiciously that an Westerner installed in a third-world country is most often designated by the term … “Expatriate. »»
A perspective with figures
“Today’s fears often echo those of yesterday,” said the commissioner, who invites us to refresh her memory. New century newspaper cuts testify to how Polish, Italian or Spanish migrants were considered when they arrived in France.
Archaeological data remind the contemporary European that its ancestors left the Middle East only … 9,000 years, while it is established that it is from Africa that our species to all, Homo sapiens, Gradually spread around the world over 60,000 years ago.
The exhibition also gives pride of place to figures. Thus we learn in particular that less than 5 % of earthlings (325 million out of 8 billion) live outside their country of birth, or that the proportion of foreigners is 13 % in France and 88 % in the United Arab Emirates.
Will this perspective reassure those who have the feeling – legitimate or not – to be under the threat of “great replacement”? After an interactive device allowing everyone to put themselves in the shoes of a migrant, the visitor is invited, at the very end of the course, to deliver in writing their conception of hospitality.
