“Museums have a democratic role to play”

Why organize a major exhibition on mummies?

The Musée de l’Homme has seventy human bodies in its collections. We cannot ignore them or treat them as mere objects. It is important to explain how these mummies arrived here and why, but also to demystify this funerary practice and to rehumanize these deceased: they were people about whom we will tell what we were able to understand about their life, their death, and even… their life “after death” if I may say so.

We also want to convey the idea that they constitute a sort of “time capsule” which informs us about the life and health of populations of the past. But of course we must treat them with all the respect and dignity due to the dead.

This exhibition commemorates ten years since the reopening of the Musée de l’Homme. Is this birthday important?

Yes, because even if it is a magnificent museum with a very rich history which has its roots in the Resistance, not everyone knows us. This is also why we are putting the emphasis back on our permanent journey which tells what the human species is, where it comes from and where it is going.

On May 23, during the next Museum Night, we will also open a new space concerning the Neolithic, the last period of prehistory (between approximately -10,000 and -2,000 years ago). During these few millennia, man settled down, invented ceramics, domesticated livestock and pets and began to select and cultivate certain plants.

It seemed to us that it was scientifically important to devote more space to this pivotal moment for our humanity. Even if, in our imagination, this period may seem less spectacular than those during which man domesticated fire (around 400,000 years ago) or began to decorate the walls of caves with colorful paintings (from around 40,000 years ago). Our visitors will witness this installation site live, which will, of course, be explained to them.

You also improve your route for children…

Indeed, thanks to a partnership with Bayard and the contribution of the little donkey Ariol, the star of I like to read. We are also developing virtual tours of the museum in classes using digital tools. It works very well! Ultimately, I would like us to be able to do the same thing in hospitals, nursing homes, etc.

However, in your rooms, you do not want to install too many screens… Isn’t that contradictory?

Digital tools are great if they are used wisely, particularly to make up for the inability to get to the museum. It is very expensive for a provincial class to charter a coach to go to Paris for a day. The virtual tour can then allow a first contact with our words and our objects. That said, if the teachers have managed to organize a trip, then we prefer that, on site, the children focus their attention on the collections

You have just published a work entitled For a committed museum. Committed to what?

To become even more a place of knowledge, of sharing knowledge, of debate, of proposals, of nuances… In the age of “post-truths” and other “alternative knowledge”, museums, which are still respected public institutions, have a real democratic role to play. I assume that there is an element of social utopia behind this book. I based it on my experience but also on what I saw among my colleagues.

What exactly did you observe? ?

A progressive movement, since the 1970s, which now affects most of these cultural institutions. They state loud and clear that they are not just safes for national treasures – although, of course, one of our primary missions is to serve as a suitable conservatory for public collections. We’re not here to look pretty!

Our commitment therefore consists of encouraging our visitors as much as possible to think – for example, about what differentiates man or not from other species –, to question themselves – about the antiquity of migrations since prehistory –, and to discuss with their family or friends. Because we rarely visit a museum alone.

Hence the development of all your educational actions ?

We must always keep in mind that a museum is an impressive institution which only a third of French people enter – a figure which has not really improved for years. We therefore have a lot of room for improvement!

All museums, particularly in regions where it is less easy to have a strong flow of visitors all year round, have developed mediations, workshops, conference programs, etc. In doing so, they are also moving the boundaries between “science museums” and “art museums”, between archeology and contemporary art.

I find this to be beneficial, because we must not remain fixed because of a simple label. We are also in the process of setting up an informal network of “engaged museums” who are thinking about new avenues to reach out to the public and make the museum a vibrant agora. Our doors must be even wider open to everyone. Citizens must feel good in a museum that belongs to them.