When the Forest Speaks Again
When we think of the Amazon, images of tamed jaguars, pan flutes, and misty greenery often come to mind. At the Musée du Quai Branly, the Amazon finally escapes the exotic frame imposed by Western imagination.
The exhibition Amazônia – Indigenous Creations and Futures offers a unique encounter between contemporary art and a living heritage. It invites us to listen to the forest differently—not as a mere backdrop, but as a living entity full of voices, presences, and memories.
A Boldly Contemporary Amazon
Under the joint direction of Leandro Varison and Amazonian artist Denilson Baniwa, the museum offers an intimate vision of the Amazon, enriched by Indigenous knowledge and in collaboration with the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of São Paulo. Over 350 communities and 300 languages resonate here: diversity is the rule, and modernity a natural state.
At the entrance, visitors are welcomed by a floating ballet of Iny-Karajá feather headdresses, symbolizing the trust between the museum and Indigenous communities. Each feather, each hue, tells a story of reciprocity and respect.
Tradition and Contemporary Art: A False Debate
As the curators remind us: “Everything is modern, everything is contemporary.”
In a journey where funerary urns, shamanic masks, millennia-old ceramics, and multimedia installations coexist, the hierarchy between “artifact” and “work of art” dissolves. Ritxoko clay dolls converse with the dreamlike photography of Paulo Desana, while Jaider Esbell’s installation Carta ao velho mundo bridges Indigenous cosmology and European conceptual art.
Beauty as Diplomacy
Through these creations emerges a new diplomacy: the diplomacy of relationships.
Amazonian peoples do not separate humans from non-humans; they negotiate with plants, speak with rivers, and commune with spirits. This philosophy celebrates ancestors and the forest. Here, beauty transcends aesthetics: it becomes a tool of resistance and harmony.
Rekindling the Dialogue
Among the highlights, the creation in October 2024 of a feather diadem by five Boe-Bororo representatives symbolizes continuity and renewal. A gesture reconnecting with objects collected nearly a century ago by Claude and Dina Lévi-Strauss. Far from relegating communities to passive spectators, the museum celebrates their ability to reclaim their stories, forms, and knowledge.
A Forest of Meaning, a World in Transformation
“In Amazonian worlds, the central value is not productivity, but abundance,” the curators remind us.
Here, gardens merge with the forest, bodies become canvases, and myths are painted and sung. The exhibition reveals a metaphysical and joyful Amazon, where every creative gesture sustains the vitality of the world.
A Poetic Reconciliation of Worlds
Amazônia – Indigenous Creations and Futures at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac invites us to reconsider our place in the grand theater of life. Modernity is not exclusively Western: beneath the museum’s canopy, the forest watches us—and this time, it is our turn to listen.
Practical Information
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, until January 18, 2026. Open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (late opening Thursdays until 10:00 p.m.)
Photo ©Filippo Cesarini - Unsplash