Le voyage dans l’art des autres, d’André Malraux au musée du quai Branly

Abstract

This article makes links between travel literature, history of art and museology in André Malraux’s autofiction, Miroir des limbes, written in 1965, a founding text bringing together travel, aesthetics and museology. As a creator of the “imaginary museum” notion in 1947, Malraux is the forerunner of the museum of Primitive Arts. In France, the Quai Branly is an exemplary model of the art of others. Defined by the writer as “the largest field of images known to mankind”, the Imaginary Museum is both a dialogue of civilisation and a dialogue of works between themselves.