The 68 million Swiss francs (£44.1m) Musée d’ethnographie de Genève is a collaborative investment between the City of Geneva, the Canton of Geneva, and the Association des Communes Genevoises, complemented by the generous Marie Madeleine Lancoux bequest.
Designed by Graber Pulver Architekten AG, in partnership with the civil engineers Weber + Brönnimann AG, the new MEG has a spacious 2,000 m² exhibition area that offers countless possibilities and has focused on being as accessible as possible to the public.
The building above ground is a strikingly bold design with the esplanade in front of the museum landscaped by Hager Partner AG as a public garden.
It is located in the lively Jonction district in the city centre and promises to be a new cultural scene in Geneva with a permanent exhibition, temporary exhibitions, concerts, films, shows, workshops and encounters.
The Marie Madeleine Lancoux library under the soaring roof has a collection of more than 45,000 books and audio-visual documents on the cultures of the five continents.

The Marie Madeleine Lancoux library has more than 45,000 books

The permanent exhibition, aptly named “The Archives of Human Diversity”, presents over a thousand objects from the five continents.
Two installations by the artist Ange Leccia complete the display designed by Atelier Brückner.
In the temporary exhibition “The Mohica Kings: Divinity and Power in Ancient Peru” has been designed by mcbd architectes, and shows the treasures of a tomb unearthed on the north coast of Peru in 2008, which is a world premier thanks to an exceptional loan from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

Temporary exhibition – The Mohica Kings: Divinity and Power in Ancient Peru on loan from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture

The new MEG now has a café with an outdoor terrace, a shop, and a public library where visitors can also listen to music and watch videos.
It also has spaces for cultural and scientific education, and an auditorium equipped for shows and digital projection.

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