Musée Guimet - Japanese Section

Paris, France

2022

Located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, Guimet Museum holds one of the largest collections of Asian art in the West. Inaugurated at its current location in 1889, it was one of the first museums of its kind in Europe – the culmination of a long-term passion for its founder, industrialist and traveler Émile Guimet (1836-1918).

Units

1

Length of exhibit fronts

7 m

Guimet’s desire was to create a museum of the religions of Asia, classical antiquity and Egypt. Many founding objects in the collection were acquired as a result of his expeditions to the Far East.

In 1945, the Guimet Museum began an artifacts exchange program with the Louvre, sending its Egyptian pieces there and receiving in return all works from the Asian arts department of the Louvre. This substantially increased the collection and cemented Guimet’s position as one of the foremost Asian art collections outside of Asia.

In February 2021 Goppion began work on a special showcase to display makimonos – long, narrow painted or handwritten scrolls. These scrolls were used extensively in ancient China and by the eighth century CE had found their way to Japan, along with the spread of Buddhism. Intended to be read horizontally, each scroll often measures several meters in length.

To this end, the makimonos at Guimet Museum required a large horizontal table showcase, nearly 7 meters in length, that permits visitors to view the entire length of each hand scroll on display. Critical components of the showcase design are the inclined display decks, which allow the angle of display to be adjusted.

Goppion ensured other key requirements were met in full, such as ease of opening the showcase and the long-term resistance of the opening mechanism. Airtightness guaranteeing perfect conservation of the works presented within was also essential, along with specialized interior equipment - adjustable and adaptable lighting - and of course security.

Finally, in addition to its core purpose to protect the fragile hand scrolls and display them to best effect, the design of this showcase took into account the aesthetic integration within the surrounding museum building, plus the location in the space and the resistance of the floor. As such, the finished product, completed in March 2022, is a good example of Goppion’s carefully crafted combination of the practical and the aesthetic.