Upside down Arctic

The other Paris exhibit was at the Musee de quai Branley, the controversial primitive art museum near the Eiffel Tower. An exhibit called Upside down Arctic was a multimedia installation featuring fabulous masks and tiny detailed inuit sculptures and talismans, all over a thousand years old. Air conditioning and fake snow may have been a bit kitchy, but the ambient animal sounds and creaking ice made the whole thing work. Good discussion with my friend James Siegel, anthropologist, on the role of masks in ancient cultures and how they fit in (or don't) with the aesthetic of an art museum.

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