World view; Jean Nouvel builds a French museum for the twenty-first century.(Brief article)

Byline: Kristin Hohenadel

To each French president his own cultural legacy-Georges Pompidou had his Centre Pompidou, Francois Mitterrand his Grands Projets and namesake Bibliotheque Nationale. This month, Jacques Chirac inaugurates the Musee du Quai Branly. Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, this dramatic U235 million museum nestled at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on the banks of the Seine showcases indigenous art from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, creating a distinguished home for non-European art in the art capital of Europe.

"It doesn't exactly look like a museum-it isn't totally readable from the outside, unlike all the public buildings in Paris," says Nouvel of the long, narrow, multicolored complex that curves with the river and is set in a forest-like space that transports visitors to another world. "I wanted the building to have a character that signaled ...