Conceived in the late 1990s by then-president Jacques Chirac as a museum devoted to arts premiers (literally “first arts”)—though it never officially bore that name—it adopted as its subtitle the phrase “Where cultures dialogue.” How has this watchword, still claimed in 2026, been put into practice over time? What shifts has the museum’s project, intended to mark a new stage in relations between Europe and other continents, undergone since its opening? What challenges does it face today, in a transformed world, at a time in which this very type of museum is being called into question? How can the museum become home to a genuine polyphony?

Wednesday June 10

9:15 Welcome

9:30 – 9:40 Opening Address:
Emmanuel Kasarhérou, President, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

9:40 – 9:50 Introduction:
Benoît de L’Estoile, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Are Cultures Made to Dialogue?

9:50 – 11:20
Moderator: Benoît de L’Estoile, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University (New York)
Are cultures made to dialogue?

Respondents:
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Safua Akeli, Übersee-Museum (Bremen)

Sarah Fila Bakabadio, CY Cergy Paris Université
A home for diasporas?

11:20–11:40 Discussion

11:40–11:50 Coffee break

First, Primitive, Tribal, Non-European Art… What’s in a Word?

11:50–12:50 Roundtable

Moderator: Nélia Dias, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

Yaëlle Biro, Institut national d’histoire de l’art (Paris)

Claire Bosc-Tiessé, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris)

Sinzo Aanza, writer, playwright and visual artist (Zurich)

12:50–13:10 Discussion

13:10 – 14:30 Lunch break

What do We Make of the Colonial?

14:30 – 16:00 Roundtable

Moderator: Anne Lafont, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris)

Nanette Snoep, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (Cologne)
Colonial legacies, from the musée du quai Branly to German museums

Andrea Viliani, Digital Heritage Gateway Platform, Direzione Generale Musei, Ministero della Cultura, Rome (2022-2026 Director, MUCIV-Musée des Civilizations, Rome)  by videoconference
From the Colonial Museum of Rome to the Museum of Opacities (MUCIV – Museum of Civilizations, Rome)

Injonge Karangwa, Université catholique de Louvain
Colonial legacies and Afro-descendants in Tervuren

Kader Attia, artist (Berlin)

16:00 – 16:20 Discussion

16:20 – 16:40 Coffee break

Research in the Museum 
A Place for History? 

16:40 – 17:40

Moderator: Hélène Njoto, École française d’Extrême-Orient

Serge Gruzinski, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris)
What to do with history?

Nicholas Thomas, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Cambridge)
Ethnography museum/history museum

17:40 – 18:10 Audience discussion 

Thursday June 11

9:15 Welcome
9:30 Day Two Opening Address: Benoît de L’Estoile

Research in the Museum 
Aesthetics in the Plural?

9:35 – 10:30

Moderator: Jessica De Largy-Healy, CNRS / Laboratoire d’ethnologie et de sociologie comparative

Anne-Christine Taylor, CNRS / musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
A research program between anthropology and art histories

Zahia Rahmani, Institut national d’histoire de l’art
A globalized history of art as seen from the INHA

Anaïs Auger-Mathurin, Université de Montréal / Université Paris Nanterre

10:30 – 10:45 Discussion

10:45 - 11:00 Coffee break

From Research to Exhibition

11:00 – 11:45 Roundtable

Moderator: Leandro Varison, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Gaëlle Beaujean, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Stéphanie Leclerc-Caffarel, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Clémence Revuz, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

11:45 – 12:05 Discussion

12:10 – 13:30 Lunch break

Sharing Collections
Repatriations, Returns, Exchanges    

13:30 – 14:50 Roundtable

Moderator: Olivia Bourrat, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Miriama Bono, artist and independent curator
Can artifacts be “ambassadors”?

Richard Tsogang Fossi, Technische Universität Berlin
Absences and return

Francis Tagro, Musée des Civilisations de Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan)
Repatriation as seen from Côte d’Ivoire

Christine Barthe, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
What does it mean to repatriate a photograph?

14:50–15:10 Discussion 

15:10–15:30 Coffee break 

Conducting Collaborative Research 

15:30–16:45 Roundtable

Moderator: Elikya Kandot, Château-musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer

Sven Haakanson, University of Washington / Burke Museum (Seattle)
Kodiak, the musée du quai Branly’s first exhibition, and collaborative research (2003)

Aimawale Opoya, artist, Taluen (French Guiana)
A collaborative project from the Wayana perspective

Discussant: Paz Núñez-Regueiro, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

16:45–17:05 Discussion

…And Twenty Years From Now? 

17:05–18:05

Moderator: Elgas, sociologist, journalist and writer (Paris)

Jang Sang-hoon, Director of the National Folk Museum of Korea (Seoul)
The window to the world: a museum of world cultures for the 21st century 

Daiara Tukano, artist and Indigenous activist (Brasilia), by videoconference

Emmanuel Kasarhérou, musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

18:05–18:30 Concluding discussion