immigration museum African Art News
|
|
African Arts >> Buy African Art
Want insider tips >> join the African Art Club .... Mail David Norden Sint-katelijnevest 27 B2000 ANTWERPEN-Belgium (map) Tel +32 3 227 35 40 |
|
|
|
immigration museum African Art News
|
|
|
The Cite Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration museum is at Palais de la Porte Doree, 293, avenue Daumesnil, 75012, Paris. For information, click on |
By Gregory Viscusi found at bloomberg.com
October 16, 2007
A new museum to celebrate the positive contribution of immigrants to France has been thrust into the center of an angry debate about national identity.
President Nicholas Sarkozy did not attend as the museum opened last week with a protest by its supporters at the lack of official recognition. New laws passed the same week to limit any influx of newcomers were described even by some in Sarkozy's own party as ``disgusting'' and evoking memories of the Holocaust.
France is the European country that has accepted the most foreigners, leading to decades of anti-immigration campaigning by National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. A quarter of all French have a grandparent born outside the country.
``France
has always been torn between a sense of national identity and a desire to be
universal,'' said Jacques Toubon, a member of the European Parliament and close
associate of former President Jacques Chirac who heads the museum's board. ``The
issue of immigration has come in cycles over 200 years and wasn't invented in
October 2007,'' Toubon said in an interview.
Still, the timing of the opening couldn't be more auspicious, or awkward; the debate came to a head as the immigration bill passed the Senate. An amendment, to allow DNA testing of immigrants' relatives to prove family links, angered former Prime Ministers Edouard Balladur and Dominique de Villepin, as well as Sarkozy's Urban Affairs Secretary Fadela Amara. The president, speaking from a summit in Moscow, responded by asking everyone to ``calm down.''
The fuss threatens to overwhelm what's a relatively modest museum. Because France's migrants didn't pass through a centralized center such as New York's Ellis Island, it has no obvious home nor pre-existing collection of records. Instead, it occupies a building built for the 1931 colonial fair, whose collection of African and Oceanic arts has moved to the Quai Branly museum of tribal arts.
Personal mementos, such as the record collection brought by a Congolese arrival in the 1970s, the accordion-making equipment of a 19th century Italian, and personal belongings from a recently shut boarding house, are displayed throughout the open-plan space.
The story starts with Belgians and Germans in the 19th century, later including Italians, Poles, Spaniards and Portuguese. Immigrants from former colonies in North and sub-Saharan Africa didn't become the immigrant majority until the 1970s.
Luc Gruson, the museum's deputy director, wants to encourage more families to donate old photos, ID cards and other souvenirs.
A group of historians first pushed for the museum in the 1980s. Governments of the left and the right weren't enthusiastic because they did not wish to provoke voters of Le Pen's National Front, said Patrick Weil, a demographer who has advised the museum. It was Chirac who in 2002 gave Toubon the green light for the idea.
``France is a nation of immigration while the U.S. is a nation of immigrants,'' Weil said. ``France has always received immigrants but it has an old core with an historical presence. Every American knows he's descended from somewhere else.''
Sarkozy, who is stepping up expulsions of undocumented workers, had a father from Hungary and two grandparents from what was then Ottoman-ruled Greece.
``It's about time that France recognizes its immigrants, but it's shocking to have this opening against a backdrop of quotas, expulsions and DNA,'' said Eric Lafon, a curator at a history museum in suburban Paris, Musee de l'Histoire Vivante in Montreuil.
While the immigration and culture ministers made separate private visits, no formal inauguration is planned for the moment. Toubon said there might be one later.
Lafon and a group of about 100 activists decided that since the museum wasn't having an official inauguration, they'd have their own where they brought their own drinks and cut a symbolic red, white and blue ribbon.
See the official site : immigration museum
To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net ;
Last Updated: October 16, 2007 23:47 EDTrelated french museums with african art and African culture
Recent postings:
Art
of the Dogon new book of JB Bedaux
Best Wishes African Art 2012
NYC-Tribal-Art-Week update your calendar- Request for african art dealers to participate. 7th-13th May 2012
L'art africain flambe aux Enchères
My Paris Hotels in Saint Germain
african artifacts for sale Jones & Key
Heroic Africans Portraits of Power: African Kings in an Age of Empire
tattoo for art a selection of tattoo art
Books:
Surfaces: Color, Substances, and Ritual App...
more african art books
visit my amazon store
In this section :
|
african art | african antiques | african art shop | african art club |
Mail
David Norden
Sint-katelijnevest 27
ANTWERPEN-Belgium
Tel +32 3 227 35 40
David Norden African Arts profile on facebook | African Arts on twitter
a few african art advertisers:
tribal art
gallery | Amyas Naegele | Bedaux
Brussels | Zemanek
| african art dealers
| origine
expert, etc....
discussion groups :
Sites Roll :
When
you travel search your hotel
room with priceline.com >>
African Art
Visit our online gallery
African Art Books David Norden's selection
African Art Club, be an insider, pro African Art collectors and dealers access !
Buy African Antiques Genuine fine African Antiques from known collections.
excellent diamonds | diamonds news |making up | Mint Robot
African
Antiques e-Newsletter
I never thought I would receive so much information's about the African art
world !
|
Hope you enjoyed reading this article about immigration museum. To stay informed about little known auctions and receive insiders images of exhibitions and fairs and receive special members privileges join the African Art Club for a low monthly fee and become a better collector .... Buy African Antiques & African Art books: Discover more books I like, visit my amazon store
TIP: Discuss this article with your friends on Share If you are a collector you should visit Buy African Antiques to discover genuine African art. David Norden is a serious dealer expert in African Art since 1992 and grew up among it. Buy African Antiques is a good place if you want a selection of authentic pieces coming from known collections, you will get free delivery and fifteen days guarantee Learn more about immigration museum ? Search for "immigration museum" books at Amazon Read also in this section:
|
|
Click
to Buy
African
Antiques Visit David
Norden in Antwerp till end November We advise great collections since 1992 ! Mail David Norden Sint-katelijnevest 27 B2000 ANTWERPEN-Belgium (map) Tel +32 3 227 35 40 |
| museum
news | African
Art Dealers | |
African Art Fairs | African
Art Auctions | do
you love | subscribe
|
African Art Club |
|
Want to buy some genuine African Art ? masks | statues | objects | outside |
Visit
my 
Fury
at French Immigration Law Eclipses New Museum Celebrations