Michael Parekowhai's bulls go to Paris

E Tu Ake – Maori Treasures
October 4, 2011 - January 22, 2012
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris

The Musée du Quai Branly is one of the great ethnographic museums and is located close to the Eifel Tower. The exhibition will feature some of the New Zealand’s oldest works by Maori artists as well as some of the newest.

E Tu Ake – Maori Treasures is intended to tell a French audience the story of “the strong indigenous culture that is thriving and asserts the will of a people to be in control of their culture and their future." Included in the show will be more than 250 diverse works taken from the Te Papa collection featuring a range of Maori arts and crafts as well as displays about language and cultural and political history.

A partially constructed whare tupuna, canoe prows as well examples of instruments of war, personal use and taonga pura are also featured. There will also be displays of traditional and contemporary tattooing.

Michael Parekowhai’s installation On first looking into Chapman’s Homer at the Venice Biennale will travel to Paris in October with the three works being showcased at the museum. The two bronze grand pianos, each supporting a cast bronze bull, A Peak in Darien and Chapman’s Homer will be installed in the grounds of the museum in early November 2011.

In February 2012 the carved Steinway, He Korero Purakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand River, will be positioned in the entrance foyer of the museum with a series of recitals planned. Also included in the E Tu Ake exhibition are contemporary works by Fiona Pardington, Brett Graham, Natalie Robertson and Reuben Paterson.

Jenny Harper, director of the Christchurch City Gallery who was the commissioner for the Venice project this year, says of Parekowhai’s inclusion in the E Tu Ake show that “follow-on invitations are a significant way for the value of the Venice Biennale project to be registered and they also demonstrate the level of respect shown to our artists who are selected to show there.

"We welcome this opportunity to extend Parekowhai’s major presentation in Europe and Christchurch Art Gallery is pleased to be assisting the artist and his team to show his Venice work in a different context in another key European cultural hub."