MW2006 BoW: The Museum of the Smiling People (all)

Thank you for nominating The Museum of the
Smiling People (all)
[http://wwwmuseedusourire.com] for the Online
Exhibition category.

Institution: The French Ministry of Culture
Designer[s]: by myself
Explanation:
Once upon a time, there was the first smile ...
in December 1995, in Paris, on a strike day. The bus number 63 was one
of the very few circulating in Paris. It went
from Trocadero to Odeon taking roughly one hour
which gave you plenty of time to read. I buried
myself into
my book "The Self Sculpture" (la Sculpture de Soi) by Michel Onfay.

Because of the traffic jam on Quai Voltaire, the bus emptied except for me
and a girl who was sitting in front of me and who was reading ìthe Joy"
(La Joie) by Georges Bernanos. "Hedonism remains
a very individualistic matter" she said to me.
There followed a short argument between us about
that statement. "Have you ever read "Babeth's feast" (Le Festin de Babeth)
by Gabriel Axel ? " This girl seemed quite nice to me.

The bus started off again but it couldnít avoid
an inevitable diversion into the Street of Saint
Pères. I was about to bid her farewell but we
insisted that we exchanged numbers. At this
point, I invited her to accompany me to the
Louvre Museum that we had just passed. Perhaps we
could go there to see if we could identify the
most beautiful smiles in the art collection.

On my own, I visited the the Louvre looking for
the smiles and taking photos with a disposable
camera. When I had them developed, it was
terrible. All the shots were bad except for one :
the statuette of Amenophis II, a small figurine
isolated behind its window at the far end of the
Egyptian Antiques Department. The pharaoh had a
broad smile, which distinguished it from the
others who were traditionally calm and ready to
cross into eternity. He was just there, smiling
and alive. He looked as if he did not belong to
Art History. I renamed him "the Louvre
reoffender". "Art is smiling at me", I thought. I
had to see right away the Mona Lisaís smile
again. How many smiles were there among the
Italian masterpieces ? I stopped in front of the
Leonardo da Vinci's attractive "Saint John the
Baptist". His smile spoke for itself. I like this
one better than the Mona Lisaís. Did you know
that the Mona Lisa, Samothrace's victory and the
toilet are the three items which are the most
visited at the Louvre ! Why have I chosen
"smiles"? Because your face smiles when there is
rejoicing and your eyes smile when there is
delight.

So why a smile museum on internet ? Because such
a museum cannot be anything but virtual like
André Malraux's museum about which Pablo Picasso
used to comment "It's a museum where the pieces
of work seem to choose you rather than us
choosing them". The smile museum presents a
challenge, that of collecting an object without
imprisoning it. Smiles cannot easily be
classified under traditional categories such as
"delighted", "sarcastic", "ironic" or any other
category.

A smile is free.

Alexia GUGGEMOS
Director
Art
The Museum of the Smile
France
www: http://www.museedusourire.com

You can check the Museums and the Web 2006 Best of the Web site
[http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/best/] for the results anytime
after March 24, 2006.

All sites are reviewed by the Best of the Web judges. Nominating a
site multiple times does NOT improve its chances of winning an award.

Thank you for your interest in Museums and the Web -- we hope to see
you at MW2006!

Sincerely,

Jennifer Trant and David Bearman, Archives & Museum Informatics
MW2006 Conference Co-Chairs