"As an only child, I travelled a lot with my parents. They were maths teachers and, for them, holidays weren't just about relaxing by the sea. Every summer, we went to Italy, Greece and Germany. As a teenager, I had a passion - almost an idolatry - for classical music, particularly that of Wagner. So we visited Bayreuth. Several composers guided our escapades. We followed in the footsteps of Beethoven in Bonn, Schubert in Vienna, Mozart in Salzburg... One of the most emotionally charged was Bavaria, the incredible castles of Ludwig II like Neuschwanstein, with their interior full of references to Wagner's operas... There was a whole symbolism there that fascinated me.
I also really enjoyed South America and meeting another culture. When I took my last student holiday, I went to Bolivia for six weeks, with only a return ticket in my pocket and no idea what I was going to find. I travelled a lot by bus, then I made some friends and we travelled in a small 4×4 through some superb panoramas, the Uyuni salt desert, the Andean Altiplano, and to the east, the jungle where we walked for a few days. It was very impressive, especially as I'm not reassured by the wild animals...
When I was at the Department of Transport, I had to go to Australia following an Airbus accident. As the country had no laboratory to decipher the black boxes, we were sent to Canberra and confined to the offices for eight days. So frustrated, I vowed to go back. Especially as we have excellent contacts with Australians at the museum, in particular with Lena Nyadbi, an Aboriginal artist aged nearly 80 who has designed a work exhibited on the media library's roof terrace.
In 2014, I took part in a mission to Japan with the Intermédiathèque of the University of Tokyo, which has entrusted the musée du quai Branly with a permanent exhibition space, the quai Branly* TOKYO. This was my fourth visit to this archipelago. Each time, it's a great pleasure... It's a change of scenery, very relaxing, very simple in the sense that if you forget your things in a restaurant, you can find them without any problem. I really like the Japanese, their culture, their cuisine, their politeness and their love of classical music. And then there are the typical landscapes, the ephemeral architecture caused by earthquakes, the tall buildings with their sometimes original structures. I also have a fantasy about the islands, perhaps an extension of my childhood. My family is of Corsican origin, so every year we would meet up with our cousins in Balagne. Corsica is so beautiful and I always wonder how anyone could leave such an island. I'm very curious to discover other islands, even the smallest ones, a bit like an 'island hunter'... Every time I visit a new one, I add another number to my list of favourites. I love the ones in the North Atlantic, especially the Breton islands like Sein, where I have a doctor friend. Also the Hebrides archipelago, to the north-west of Scotland, where Mendelsshon travelled and found inspiration for The Hebrides, which evokes, among other things, the ebb and flow of the ocean. Quite a journey...
Key dates
1970
Born in Paris.
1990
Enters the École Polytechnique.
1995
Head of the "black box" laboratory at the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité aérienne (BEA).
2006
Reporter to the Court of Auditors.
2015
Appointed Deputy Director General of the musée du quai Branly.
Coming soon to the musée du quai Branly : "Sepik, Arts of Papua New Guineafrom 27 October 2015 to 31 January 2016.
Proust, Ruskin, The Amiens Bible, Sesame and the Lilies and other textsedition established, presented and annotated by Jérôme Bastianelli, Bouquins collection, Robert Laffont.
