Description of the attraction
The Museum of Asian Arts in Nice is small, the collection here is rather modest. But it is interesting to visit it if only because the building of the museum in Feni Park was erected by the famous Japanese architect Kenzo Tange.
The idea to open a museum of Asian art was expressed at one time by the mayor of the city, Jacques Médsen, a man who wrote bright and at times controversial pages in the history of Nice. Be that as it may, the townspeople elected him as mayor five times. In the nineties, impressed by the work of the French sculptor Pierre-Yves Tremois, who exhibited a lot in Japan, the mayor decided to create a museum in Nice dedicated to the art of China, Japan, India and Cambodia. A strong, independent and impulsive man, he invited the great Kenzo Tange to design the museum.
Tange created a completely unusual, light and bright building on the shore of an artificial lake in Feni Park, which in itself is a work of oriental art. The architect used two main geometric shapes that have sacred meaning in the Japanese tradition: a square (a symbol of the earth) and a circle (a symbol of the sky). Four cubes of white marble surround a similar white marble rotunda topped with a glass pyramid. Each of the cubes contains halls dedicated to the art of one country.
The museum was opened in 1998. Today, there are about two hundred exhibits of undeniable historical value: a paired statue of gilded white-tailed deer of the 17th-18th centuries from Central Tibet (they symbolize the first sermon of the Buddha), a lacquered figure of a meditating Amida Nyorai (Japan, Edo era, 18th century), an amazing funerary figurine kneeling woman (China, Han era, III century). A Japanese wooden lacquered vessel for making tea (late 15th - early 16th century) is good, a Japanese ceramic horse of the 6th century, 18th century Indian fabric with hand-painted paintings depicting the young god Krishna.
In the museum, you can get acquainted not only with static exhibits: in a special pavilion, a classic Japanese tea ceremony is regularly organized, presentations of Chinese tea traditions are held. All explanations are given, however, in French.
