© Museum Quai Branly

Due to great interest aroused in the international scientific community in the opening of the museum Quai Branly in 2006 in Paris, the representatives of the French Committee of Art History (CFHA) gathered in the meeting of the International Committee of Art History (CIHA), that took place in the Montreal congress (end of August 2004), propose a conference project entitled Art History and anthropology. This conference was the follow-up of the Los Angeles Conference (April 2006) and preceded the large congress of Melbourne (2008) Crossing cultures, Conflict, Convergence, Migration.

Philippe Durey, president of the CFHA, emphasized that the CFHA's objective is "to participate in all the debates regarding the community of art historians that affect the present practice or the future of the discipline". With this purpose, the CFHA and the Department of research and education of the museum of Quai Branly, directed by Anne-Christine Taylor, have associated under the auspices of the CIHA, represented by their scientific secretary, Thierry Dufrêne, professor of the University Paris X-Nanterre. The Department of studies and research of the national Institute of art history (INHA), directed by Jean-Marc Poinsot, participates in the operation from its beginnings.

The common scientific Committee of the Branly/CFHA/INHA museum wishes that the conference allows to reflect on the reciprocal track of anthropology and art history: it will deal with the methodology changes and the way in which the evolution of the relations between these two fields of knowledge has modified the apprehension of corpus that considers each one of them. The study of contemporary art seems essential for the visibility of this situation, specially for the analysis of the transition from a ethnologic consideration of the objects to an aesthetic opinion. Throughout the conference, objects from the collections of the museum will be exhibited.

Thanks to the presence of numerous foreign researchers, the conference Art history and anthropology will allow to confront different points of view and methods. The discussions will take place in the INHA (Colbert gallery) and in the museum quai Branly. Visits to the museum quai Branly and to the Louvre museum will be organized (pavilion of Sessions). At the same time temporary exhibitions will be exhibited in the museum: one devoted to the artist Yinka Shonibare and another one to the arts of New Ireland.