Alain Mikli, a brand of Luxottica Group and the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac make common cause once more to share with visually-impaired visitors the richness and diversity of the works featured in this exhibition by enabling them to discover the tactile interpretations of the three following works:

• Fighting Antelopes, Jean Dunand, 1930
• Portrait of Savorgnan de Brazza, Alphonse Monchablon, 1886
• Mourners in Cairo, Émile Bernard, 1894

These tactile interpretations are located in the three segments around which the exhibition is articulated, along a podotactile strip adhered to the ground. Outcome of a narrow collaboration between the teams of the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac and Alain Mikli these tactile interpretations are manufactured by our partner, Océ-Technologies B.V., thanks to an innovative elevated printing technology the company developed.

This technology provides these interpretations with an unmatched tactile precision, up to representing through relief and texture effects the artist’s pictorial technique. Visitors can thus discover the stylized representations of figurative elements, performed by Jean Dunand in his work Fighting Antelopes and touch up to the rosette of the Legion of Honor, the most prestigious award granted by the French republic that Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza wears on the lapel of his jacket. In addition, the visual aspect of these interpretations, in conformity with the high-definition photographs they are based on, enables partially-sighted visitors who can look at them as closely as they need, to enjoy the unmitigated radiance of the colors displayed by the Mourners in Cairo.

Each tactile interpretation is displayed on a lectern and comes along with a short introductory text in Braille/large characters, in French and English as well as with two headphones playing a bilingual comment describing in detail the tactile interpretation, which is essential for visitors to understand the nature of the elements under their fingertips. Beyond this factual description, these comments replace each work in its historical, geographical and cultural context, which is key to understand the very purpose of this exhibition.

Discover PAINTINGS FROM AFAR with your fingertips PAINTINGS FROM AFAR. The collection of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac is from January,  30, 2018 to 6 January 2019.