Musée Quai Branly takes us to the heart of the Australian desert, with an exhibition not to be missed : Songlines.
On the trail of the Seven Sisters
Immersion in the heart of the Aboriginal world. Songlines takes us through the Australian desert on the trail of the Seven Sisters, one of the country’s most popular legendary tales.
For millennia, the memory of Australia’s Aboriginal populations has been passed on through the words of the elders, stories told in paintings, ceremonies and songs. Passed down from generation to generation, these songlines – literally “songs of the tracks”* – guide the steps of the Aborigines through the territory and throughout their lives, like a real map. Much more than legendary stories, they are real corridors of knowledge, paths traced over millennia that contain the fundamental rules of social cohabitation, and ecological, astronomical or geographical knowledge essential to survival.
Copyright MEP
Built in close collaboration with the communities, Songlines does not content itself with “showcasing” works of Aboriginal creation. Through nearly 200 pieces, created by more than 100 artists, and around twenty immersive devices (audiovisual installations, filmed ceremonial performances, sound stories, etc.), the exhibition invites you to experience an Aboriginal perception of the world in following the story of seven sisters pursued by a powerful wizard on earth and in heaven. One of Australia’s most popular epics that the elders, true memory keepers, have chosen to entrust to us.
Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Museum
Quai Branly
75007 Paris 7
https://www.quaibranly.fr/fr/expositions-evenements/au-musee/expositions/details-de-levenement/e/songlines
