SCIENTIFIC AND MUSEOGRAPHIC CHOICES
The Scientific Committee was set up in March 2006 under the chairmanship of the historian Marc Ferro, in order to set guidelines for the concept of and historical viewpoint to be taken by the Musée de la Grande Guerre in Pays de Meaux.
The committee’s discussions covered not only the historical viewpoint to be presented by the future museum and the visit itinerary through which it might be expressed, but also such areas as problematics concerning the building’s architecture and museography, the role the new cultural facility might play in local, national and international tourism, and that to be played by the archive images. Such wide-ranging deliberations enabled the project to be envisaged in its entirety, while keeping in mind that any museum is of its own time, as are the questions that are raised within its walls. Collection content was to form the basis for all reflection, stimulating ideas rather than simply illustrating them.
Getting visitors to experience something of their country’s history and provoking an emotional reaction therefrom without affecting the museum’s didactic qualities was also one of the Scientific Committee’s major concerns”.
Marc Ferro.
The committee’s deliberations came to an end with the approach of summer 2006. The principle of a main itinerary going from the 1914 Battle of the Marne to the 1918 Battle of the Marne, with the two confrontations mirroring one another and, in the centre, a reconstruction of a battlefield (French trench, German trench and no-man’s-land between), was put forward: before Marne 1914, the same mentalities and states of mind that had been the order of the day since 1870; after 1918, illusions of victory, construction of memory, and resonances continuing on into the world of today. This main focus would be complemented by an accompanying itinerary developing such specific themes as the mobilisation of societies, the role of women and children, tactics and strategy, physical endurance, globalisation and the role of the United States. In this way, the itinerary enables visitors to put the first worldwide conflict in its context, within the history of the 20th century as a whole.
The museography decided upon for the 3000 m2 of permanent exhibition takes up these themes, leading naturally enough to construction of two visit itineraries – one short and the other long. Its originality stems from the fact that it places visitors in a general ambience in which all their senses are called upon – sound, touch and smell all form part of the experience of discovery. Each of the theme-based areas along the way provides a new and unexpected atmosphere: interest never flags and visitors can only guess what might be waiting for them behind the next partition.
The itinerary is a journey through time, forming a loop that starts with what today’s visitors know about the Great War and ends up by calling upon them to consider the consequences the conflict has had on the modern world. This progression sets the museum firmly in the 21st century and shows that History is a continuous thread that does not come to an end at a particular date or with this or that event. The determination to familiarise visitors with History and, more generally, with heritage and its worth is one of the Musée de la Grande Guerre’s major concerns, and will be further developed through educational activities and cultural programming.
