A short distance upstream of the Eiffel Tower, on quai Branly, work continues on the new Musée du Quai Branly (or possibly the Musée des Arts Premiers; www.quaibranly.fr), which will bring together the Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie and the ethnography department from the Musée de l'Homme, along with space for temporary exhibitions, plays and contemporary non-European dance. One of Jacques Chirac's pet projects (the president has a passion for non-European art), the need for such a museum has been the subject of much controversy and debate, with ethnographers, on one side, reluctant to witness the separation of existing collections, notably that of the Musée de l'Homme, and art-lovers, on the other, decrying the whole quasi-colonial enterprise of ethnography. Architect Jean Nouvel's design is for a curving, futuristic edifice on stilts with a garden behind a giant glass curtain – rather like his Fondation Cartier in the 14e. The museum is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2005 at the earliest; in the meantime a small selection is being showcased in the Louvre's Pavillon des Sessions.
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