As the Mucem celebrates its tenth anniversary, it's about time to take a look back at the heart and history of the museum: its collection. This permanent exhibition aims to present the diversity of the collection, bringing together the historical holdings of the Musée national des Arts et Traditions populaires, the European collections of the Musée de l'Homme and those acquired since the early 2000s in a bid to open up to the Mediterranean and the contemporary world.

On the building’s ground, the Mucem's permanent exhibition is intended to be a space for discovery, highlighting the profoundly human nature of the objects and testimonies that make this collection up. It showcases what makes up the museum's 'material', and demonstrates the collection's semiotic (what the objects say about the society in which they were produced) and aesthetic character. It also allows us to read all the stories that led to the acquisitions, the objects' life paths, and why they were placed in the museum's reserves, now and in the past.

The general tour takes you through the major categories borrowed from the vocabulary of the history of the arts and techniques ("painting", "sculpture", "metal arts"),

"Ceramics”, etc.), a journey that brings out the distinctive features of the Mucem collection, doing away with the usual hierarchy between fine art and popular art.

We go from objects that are expected in a museum (such as paintings, ex-votos, icons, etc.) to more surprising items (such as decorated beehive doors), and from objects that are familiar to the general public to items that are more unexpected or even mysterious at first sight.

Alongside the 1,200 objects and documents from the Mucem's historical collections or those more recently acquired by the museum, an immersive digital mediation system uses a selection of objects to evoke the idea of 'popular culture' that permeates its collections.

Group of curators:

The Mucem conservation team: Justine Bohbote, Raphaël Bories, Marie-Charlotte Calafat, Caroline Chenu, Françoise Dallemagne, Camille Faucourt, Julia Ferloni, Émilie Girard, Vincent Giovannoni, Mireille Jacotin, Enguerrand Lascols, Édouard de Laubrie, Amélie Lavin, Hélia Paukner, Jean-Fabien Philippy.

Set design: Sylvie Jodar
Graphic design: Caroline Pauchant
Lighting design: Thierry d'Oliveira Reis

Main sponsor for the 10th anniversary of the Mucem

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