How can Asia travel across France? This is the challenge taken on by the National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet, which is imagining a series of traveling exhibitions to showcase the treasures of its collections in several French cities. The Guimet+ initiative will be set up in permanent spaces of 150 to 200 m2. It will be established there for four years to allow the development of new dynamics with local cultural, educational, and medico-social stakeholders and community organizations, and to develop long-term actions. For four years, visitors will be able to explore different Asian cultural areas, like so many stages of a long journey across a rich and diverse continent. First stop: Digne-les-Bains, with a focus on Japan.

The innovative and semi-permanent scenography combines durability and annual renewal. It is designed in a modular way, but each exhibition is structured in the same way to facilitate rotations, with a concern for eco-responsibility. We chose to welcome visitors, right from the entrance, with a large world map. Asia occupies the center, inviting visitors to change their perspective. Right next to it, a screen offers a play of gazes between Western and Japanese traditions, like a dialogue between two worlds. The itinerancy of the exhibitions

The Japan exhibition is structured around four major universal themes: prestige, beauty, the sacred, and transgression. We chose to illustrate each theme with an original wallpaper, specially designed for the occasion. Monumental kakemonos mark the stages of the journey and guide the visitor, making the reading of the space clear and fluid. This setup allows these elements to be reused from one stage to the next.