Spectandum exhibits three 19th C Birds of Paradise at Musée du Quai Branly in Paris

Temporary exhibition / Galerie Germain Viatte, 12 May – 8 November 2026

FEATHERS OF PARADISE

The journeys of an extraordinary bird from New Guinea

A master of courtship display, the bird of paradise has fascinated people since the early centuries of our era, far beyond the forests of New Guinea, its main homeland, through the brilliance of its plumage and the extraordinary inventiveness of its dances.

By exploring the sense of wonder that birds of paradise inspire and the imaginative worlds they have fed, the exhibition traces the history of their circulation and their depiction in the arts, from Oceania to Asia and the West, as well as in Western natural science.

Bringing together nearly 210 works, feather ornaments, paintings, taxidermy specimens, fashion pieces and accessories, art objects and illustrated books, the exhibition weaves together perspectives from natural history, art, fashion, ethnology and ecology. It highlights the many ways these birds have been used, admired, depicted and studied over time.

Developed in collaboration with scientists and artists from New Guinea, the exhibition also presents contemporary works rooted in local knowledge and realities, inviting visitors to reconsider our relationship with the living world.

 Private collection Spectandum

The first stage of the exhibition brings visitors to meet the bird of paradise in its homeland, New Guinea. A display of various body ornaments reflects the ties woven between the birds, Papuan societies and their territories, through trade networks, danced and sung performances, and value systems associated with feathers.

Audiovisual footage of these dance performances and sound immersions puts these relationships between human and non-human communities into context. Local narratives highlight, among other things, the singular identity of the bird of paradise, both masculine and feminine at once, and its connection to other emblematic species such as the cassowary.

Dance headdress. Papua New Guinea, mid-20th century © musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, photo Pauline Guyon

Makassar – Agra – Kathmandu: the routes of paradise

For over two thousand years, the natural resources of New Guinea and neighbouring islands have drawn the interest of distant markets. The earliest trade routes, established as early as the 5th century, linked western New Guinea and the Moluccas (the "Spice Islands") to Java, Bali, Malaysia and China, and later to India, western Asia and the Mediterranean. At the heart of these exchanges were the birds of paradise. Having become "birds of the world," they were sometimes woven into pre-existing local myths, giving rise to confusion. Skins, feathers, stories and images travelled and transformed, serving multiple purposes: precious commodities, diplomatic gifts, emblems of sovereignty, curiosities for scholarly collections.

Decorative tile depicting a horseman offering fruit to a simurgh, a fabled long-tailed bird from Persian mythology. Tehran, Iran, circa 1865–1888 © musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, photo Claude Germain

Seville – Amsterdam – Prague: from Magellan to Wallace

The first bird-of-paradise skins reached Europe in the early 16th century, at a time when science could not yet explain their shape or origin. They were regarded as works of God, or as naturalia or exotica for cabinets of curiosities. Their names, descriptions and earliest depictions reveal the aura of mystery surrounding them, and would go on to shape the earliest classifications of these species for a long time to come.

The great painters of the 16th and 17th centuries — Brueghel the Elder, Rubens, Rembrandt — took up the motif in allegories that gradually reveal a shift from imagination to reality, from fantasy to science. Natural science, through on-the-ground observation carried out in New Guinea and island Southeast Asia (notably present-day Indonesia) in the late 18th and 19th centuries, structured knowledge with the help of local actors and their expert understanding, identified species variants, and inspired the decorative arts as well as fine art.

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Boy in a Cape and Turban (Portrait of Prince Rupert, Count Palatine), Jan Lievens, ca. 1631 © The Leiden Collection, New York

Paris – London – New York: ladies' delight

By the end of the 19th century, feather-work had become a true industry within women's fashion. A taste for feathers from exotic species, part of the naturalist spirit of this century of scientific exploration. became a fashion trend, both irresistible and, in its scale and extravagance, unsustainable. Its success was immense, to excess, and in turn gave rise, in Europe and the United States, to the first activist movements, often feminist, for the protection of animal species.

The exhibition thus sheds light on the historical tension between fascination with feathers, commercial logic, and the emergence of a protective conscience towards living creatures.

New Guinea: an emblematic bird

Returning to New Guinea, the exhibition unfolds the emblematic figure of the bird of paradise, a source of inspiration for many artists to this day, through several contemporary Papuan works and voices.

The independence movement that swept the South Pacific in the 1970s was marked, among other things, by the creation of national emblems: the bird of paradise thus appears on the national flag of the new state of Papua New Guinea, created in 1975. There, the bird of paradise is a living emblem: a national symbol, an artistic motif, a marker of identity, and a subject of engagement. Contemporary artworks, everyday objects, visual archives and filmed testimonies give voice to Papuan artists, researchers and communities, grounding the exhibition in a situated, collaborative and thoroughly present-day approach.

PNG Pisin Paradise, Simon Gende (born 1969), Kuman Group, Simbu Province, Papua New Guinea, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, private collection, Paris

Curators: Magali Mélandri, Head of the Oceania–Island Southeast Asia heritage unit at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac; Stéphanie Xatart, Art historian, independent curator

About the exhibition — Catalogue
224 pages, €39.90
Co-published by musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac / Grand Palais Rmn

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
12 May – 8 November 2026
musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
37 quai Branly, 218 and 206 rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris
T. 01 56 61 70 00
www.quaibranly.fr

PRESS CONTACTS
Claudine Colin Communication / FINN Partners
Julie Camdessus — Julie.camdessus@finnpartners.com
Alexandre Holin — Alexandre.holin@finnpartners.com
T. 01 42 72 60 01
www.claudinecolin.com

musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac
presse@quaibranly.fr