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The major French museums are looking for their “sustainable model”

2022-01-29T09:11:45.330Z


Less "spectacular" and "longer" exhibitions avoiding the displacement of millions of visitors, recyclable scenographies... The representatives of the institutions met in Lille, to reflect on a future that is more respectful of the environment.


Pressed by

the "climate emergency

", representatives of French museums worked for two days in Lille on a more environmentally friendly model, offering less "

spectacular

" but "

longer

" and "

intelligent

" exhibitions... and without displacing millions of visitors.

Read alsoEnvironment: the green label, new standard for public cultural establishments

"

The national low-carbon strategy means zero net CO2 emissions by 2050. We have no choice: everyone must move

", poses as soon as the work opens at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille , Bruno Maquart, president of Universcience (City of Sciences and Palais de la Découverte, in Paris).

If the mobilization of museums is “

relatively old

” in the United States, it is still in its infancy in France, recalls the administrator of the Lille establishment, Étienne Bonnet-Candé.

However, he salutes the "

pioneering work

" carried out by institutions such as the Quai Branly, Universcience, or the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN).

Problem: a large majority of greenhouse gas emissions come from “

visitor travel

”.

For museums attracting an international clientele, such as the Louvre, this proportion rises to 90%.

Therefore, how to reconcile the mission of the museum, the transmission to the public, and the reduction of the carbon footprint?

" De-

escalation

"

We must first "

totally rethink

" the "

model of the last thirty years

" slice Sylvain Amic, director of the Meeting of Metropolitan Museums-Rouen Normandy.

"

Until now, a successful museum has been a museum of infinite growth, which grew richer, expanded

" and "

had queues of people who came from afar to see paintings that reached great fresh from around the world.

Clearly, this model is dying out

”.

"

Pushed in a search for their own resources

", the institutions had to "

attract more and more people

" to make the figure, regrets the deputy director general of the Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais (RMN-GP), Emmanuel Marcovitch, claiming "

a de-escalation

". Among the solutions, the "

renouncement of

spectacular and short exhibitions, generating inconsiderate movements of works by plane, in specialized boxes, often air-conditioned, and an overproduction of scenographic elements then "

thrown in the dumpster

". Museums must also "

slow down

“, by extending the duration of the exhibitions, counting on a local public and reducing the quantity of works presented in favor of the transmission to the visitor of a “

rich scientific subject

”.

Either prefer “

the demonstration of intelligence

”, to “

the demonstration of power

”, according to Sylvain Amic.

Eco conception

The "Normandy Impressionist" festival has thus gone "

from a dependence on foreign loans of 50% in 2010 to 3% in 2020

", and "

from a central exhibition in Rouen

" to smaller ones "

in nine cities

", allowing “

audiences to find what they were looking for where they were

”. Similarly, the Louvre Museum and the RMN-GP recently produced "

eighteen exhibitions of ten works on the Arts of Islam

" throughout France, in museums, libraries or cultural centers, capturing "

a different audience, who would not necessarily have come to Paris

". It is possible "

to pool

“Collections and loans, means of transport, and even to create common “

itinerant

” scenographies, in France or in Europe, also pleads Julie Bertrand, director of exhibitions at Paris-Musées.

Even if “

brakes

” exist, such as “

conservation standards

”, imposing a “

return to reserve

” often after 90 days of exposure, recalls the head of cultural production at the MuCem, Sylvia Amar.

Another acclaimed axis: eco-design, i.e. a scenography designed upstream to minimize the carbon footprint, from the choice of materials or products used - biosourced, recycled, labeled - through hanging, designed to be able to recycle or reuse the elements . It remains to be equipped with technical tools to assess the carbon footprint of the overall operation of museums, an approach where the sector is lagging behind others, building or heavy industries. The place of digital is the subject of debate because this technology also generates pollution and waste. "

Today we observe many initiatives, abundant but scattered

", summarizes the director of ICOM-France (International Council of Museums), Juliette Raoul Duval.It is now necessary to "

compare them

“, invent “

common tools

”, and perhaps at national or even international level “

figures and standards

”.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-01-29

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