Pasifika Museum

Amongst this sun bleached panorama, unexpected and seemingly far too unsuspected still, Pasifika, a Museum Pacific Asia resides. Obviously conceived with the refined and eclectic taste of a collector, paired to the delightful logic of a story teller, the museum reveals a flow of rooms filled with a wonderful and well opinionated selection of over 600 works of art created by no less than 140 artists originating from 20 different countries. As one of its co-founder, Philippe Augier states in the introduction of the book: ”the experience of contemplating artwork is a constant pleasure, because every moment spent in front of a painting offers a chance to evoke emotion, memories or dreams”. And so it is indeed, strolling through the 8 pavilions which form the museum’s gallery.The first gallery introduces to Indonesian artist such as Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai and its graphic, descriptive yet subtly poetic work, the wild, colourful often insightful pictorial expressions of Nyoman Gurnasa or the precise work of Made Wianta.

The following rooms exhibit a selection of pieces by European and other foreign artists, depicting their view, observation and impression of the island and its culture in particular, Indonesia and its diversity in general. Renown resident artists from Nieuwenkamp to Spies, Le Mayeur, Blanco, Friend, Hoffner and Meier are present along perhaps less known though nonetheless enchanting ones like Breetvett, Bettinger, Ambron and Lafugie to name a few. The tone changes somewhat from room 7 onwards, following a handful of the previously represented artists in their discovery of neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Later yet artists from these very regions are then presented, with this time, distinct European artistic influence in their work. Judiciously the visit ends with a display of tribal artefacts and pictorial work from the more primal island of the region, sending one on a reflective course to the origin of creative expression at the base of all artistically developed culture.

Back in the entrance, a last glance notices a set of whimsical and illustrative maps by Mexican artist and traveller Miguel Covarrubias. These six lithographed murals entitled “Pageant of the Pacific” map the pacific rim, filled with characteristic pictorial elements of the various country or region, each titled with a theme: peoples, fauna and flora, art forms, economy, native dwellings and native means of transportation. Created in 1938 for the Golden Gate International Exhibition held in San Francisco in 1939, this collection of maps is the perfect emblem of the museum, both born out of a desire to share, expose and explore the fascinating art forms and multicultural heritage of the Asia pacific region.