An Itinerary through Images and Gardens

The permanent exhibit at the new Musée Départemental Albert-Kahn proposes an educational and sensory-based exploration of the collections. Rolled out throughout the site, the tour of the site of approximately 1,000 m2 creates an unprecedented dialogue between the images and natural heritage, inviting visitors to stroll throughout the historical garden, patiently designed by the banker philanthropist.

The visit starts on the ground floor of Kengo Kuma’s new building and continues on in the restored historical buildings, some of them open for the first time to the public. This immersive experience calls for both introspection as well as imagination, thanks to the original scenography designed by Atelier Scénorama. Assuming its contemporary character, this participatory scenography helps visitors to discover the art of wandering, strolling and family entertainment through its many interactive devices.

Albert Kahn’s pacifist project, and his desire to turn his collections from the Archives de la Planète into a sort of mirror of the world, was the inspiration for this scenography. Installations, furnishing and signage relay one another, plunging visitors into the encyclopedic and abundant nature of the collections: the landscaped garden, films and autochromes. A few domestic details remind visitors that the visit takes place on the patron’s property. Here, you are in Albert Kahn’s home!

Discover the tour of the site

A – Albert Kahn’s world

B – Fabrique des Images

C – Salle des Plaques

D – Serre

E – Grange Vosgienne

 

The garden

1 – The Blue Forest and the Marshland

2 – The Golden Forest and the Meadow

3 – The Vosges Forest

4 – The Orchard and Rose garden

5 – The French-style garden

6 – The English-style garden

7 – The contemporary Japanese garden

8 – The Japanese village

Albert Kahn’s world

Visitors are invited to discover the Albert Kahn’s world, from his personality to his foundations, through an intimate portrayal ending with his visual documentation project: the Archives de la Planète.

 

These thousands of images, both still and moving, offer a one-of-a-kind aesthetic experience and are interpreted so that visitors can better understand the context in which they were produced.

 

All around the room is a gigantic interactive inventory wall with more than 2,000 autochromes reproduced in their original 9x12 cm format, thus providing an immersive experience of the collections.

Fabrique des Images

Invented by the Lumière brothers, the autochrome and cinematograph were employed by the Archives de la Planète’s camera operators in order to record life in all its forms.

 

The Fabrique des Images retraces the backgrounds of some of these talented explorers and reveals, from all angles, their equipment and working conditions in the field.

Salle des Plaques

This site, where the autochrome plates from the Archives de la Planète were originally stored, now includes a screening booth.

 

Visitors can thus voyage from the comfort of their armchair and experience a screening such as Albert Kahn loved to organize.

 

This space, also dedicated to contemporary creation, offers guest artists to create a work based on the idea of archives and inventories.

Serre

The side wings of the greenhouse illustrated the importance of the garden in Albert Kahn’s political, social and philosophical project.

 

A laboratory of germinating ideas and initiatives, the garden was both a delightful spot for the banker’s special guests and an inexhaustible subject for photographers, revealing the power of the living world, which was so important to Albert Kahn.

Grange Vosgienne

From the past to the present, the Vosges barn compares the expertise of gardeners during Albert Kahn’s lifetime and the environmentally friendly management techniques of a heritage garden.

 

 A video triptych retraces the garden’s history and the challenges of this exceptional site.

 

As for the photographic herbarium, it magnifies the botanical wealth and specificity of the vegetation that composes the mix-style gardens.

Salon des Familles

Familiarize yourself with the museum’s collections in the Salon des Familles (access included with your entry ticket).

 

Located on the 1st floor of the museum, the Salon des Familles awaits!

 

Children and adults can spend a pleasant moment together thanks to three interactive mediation displays making it possible for you to discover Albert Kahn’s project, as well as a lounge brightened up with games and books for children.

The SCENORAMA studio – Dany Gandon and Jean-Christophe Ponce – is a multi-faceted team, dedicated to studying scenography in all its forms. With no preconceived forms or materials, they constantly adapt and reinvent themselves in order to find the perfect connection between the public and the intention. Attached to the creation of sensory-based and well thought-out spaces, which surprise through their clarity, they thus implement every kind of possible visual and sound in order to transmit an intention or knowledge.

More info: www.scenorama.fr

The group working on the design and implementation of the new visitor itinerary for the collections included, in collaboration with the Scénorama studio (design and implementation of the scenography, coordination and artistic direction for the project): ADEQUAT (budget); ATELIER 144 (design and production of the audiovisual and multimedia features); GUERILLAGRAFIK (graphics); NUMERO 111 (creation of the furnishing for the bookstore-gift shop and Family room); REMOTE (lighting design).