MCQ: News Desk: Mumi

To underscore the inevitable passage into the third millennium, museum institutions from all over the world joined hands to create a virtual exhibition, a unique site: Museums & Millennium. This collective work, initiated by the Musée de la civilisation in Québec, is presented on the Internet until September 3, 2001. Members of the public who do not have access to the Internet, can view Museums & Millennium in the Cybercafé—especially set up at the Musée de la civilisation—by typing “www.mumi.org”. This project is funded by the Canada Millennium Partners Program (CMPP), produced in collaboration with the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec and sponsored by Le Soleil daily.

Museums & Millennium is undoubtedly a museological first on an international scale. This surprising voyage, as seen through the eyes of each of the museums, puts the great existential questions facing humanity at the dawn of the third millennium into perspective: the transmission of values, the need to excel, the transgression of stereotypes, the manifestations of crossbreeding, the problem of ageing, the survival of the planet… The site also proposes the Museums & Millennium collection—composed of human representations—which will eventually be enriched by contributions from other museum institutions and even from the public at large.

“The federal government is proud to contribute to the production of the Museums & Millennium project by making a financial contribution of more than $250 000 in the context of the Canada Millennium Partners Program,” pointed out Clifford Lincoln, Deputy for Lac St-Louis, on behalf of the Honourable Herb Gray, Deputy Vice-Prime Minister and Minister responsible for the Government of Canada's millennium initiative. “This virtual exhibition, offered in both official languages, will enable Internet surfers all over the world to explore the cultural dimensions of societies from home and abroad.” The Canada Millennium Partners Program assumes up to a third of the projects' admissible costs, whereas other organizations and the private sector provide two thirds of the funds.

The Museums & Millennium collection
The objects and visual representations brought together within the scope of Museums & Millennium make up an important collection, which would be impossible to assemble anywhere else than in virtual space. This collection will become a sort of ambassador of a new meaning that could be given to museum activities. Selections were made by each museum in terms of the message they wanted to transmit and of the nature of their collections.

Views on humanity
Each partner museum has chosen a theme corresponding to its mission and to the nature of its collections. They provide a perspective on humankind, its heritage and its future:

12 THEMES AND 12 PARTNERS
Crossings *
Human beings, nature, culture, technology… everything is crossed!
Musée de la civilisation
(Quebec, Canada)

Ancestor Cult
Death is the fourth step in life…
Musée d’art et d’archéologie d’Antananarivo
(Madagascar)

SLO 2000 *
Individuals & statistics:
the power of images and numbers.
Mestna Galerija, (Ljubjana, Slovenia)

God’s Millennia
Humans always look for a meaning to life, death and the universe
Musée Dauphinois, (Grenoble, France)

Memories of the 20th century *
Discover traces from life and testimonials
by unknown people.
Museo de Pessoa, (São Paulo, Brazil)

Everyday Religion *
Expressions of great religions
in a multicultural society
Riksutstallningar, (Stolkhom, Sweden)

The Global Garden
Reconciling Man and Nature *
Nine “commandments” to save the earth
Parc de la Villette (Paris, France)

The Adventure of Learning
A tradition several millenniums old:
learning at school
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie
(Paris, France)

Foreign Beings
Our Images of the Other *
Stereotypes get in the way of authentic encounters between human beings
Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
(Dresden, Germany)

Celebrations
In an era of globalization, rituals
and popular celebrations live on
and become doubly important
Museo Nazionale delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari, Roma; Italy

Secrets of Ageing
Some would say that we age
as we have lived.
Museum of Science
(Boston, United States)

The Grand Illusion *
To what extent can we repair, duplicate, conserve, represent or reinvent
the human body?
Musée d’histoire naturelle
(Neuchâtel, Switzerland)

* These thematic units will be available in French and English versions starting May 2,
the others will be added in the coming weeks.

A lively and constantly developing site
An innovative approach, fascinating reflections… Museums & Millennium (www.mumi.org) will constantly develop until December 31, 2000. In the coming months, each theme will be enriched by the addition of contributions from other institutions and from the public at large.

The Museums & Millennium virtual exhibition will be published on the Internet until September 3, 2001.
This project is funded by the Canada Millennium Partners Program (CMPP), produced in collaboration with the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec and sponsored by Le Soleil daily. The Musée would like to thank the Musée Média and Cossette Interactif firms for the quality of their collaboration.

Information:
Serge Poulin, (418) 643-2158
Public Relations and Communications

Issued: May 2, 2000.