Friend and fellow collector Arnaud Grunberg has shared some details about his new venture, Science Fiction Archives, and an exhibit at La Cité des Sciences in Paris – Sciences (ET) Fiction – featuring incredible material from that collection.
Below are some additional details from Arnaud:
La Cité des Sciences is the biggest science museum in Paris. I have loaned 22o pieces of which 170 are currently displayed. The exhibition is about science and science fiction. It’s on two floors. The first floor is about Man and Machines. The second floor is about Space and Time. My items are on display and so are some books and manuscripts loaned by the French National Library, including the first pages of Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. The rest of the show is made of educational and fun multimedia activities concocted by the museum and clips from Sci-Fi films.
I have always been a discreet collector so this is a big leap for me. I decided that if I was going to share part of my collection with the public I should also share its ownership and the responsability of looking after it. With this in mind I created a company and a brand called ScienceFictionArchives.com. We are six partners. Two of them are collectors (Ben Fleurier and myself) and legendary film producer Robert Watts is our Honorary President. The others are my brother, my lawyer and Patrice Girod, who used to be the publisher of the french Lucasfilm Magazine. Items are currently on loan either by myself or by ScienceFictionArchives.com. In the future they will only appear under the ScienceFictionArchives.com banner.
We launched the website two days before the opening of the exhibition. It’s goal is to supply exhibition visitors with more information on some of the items on display. You will excuse the english version which is currently online, it’s only temporary. We are working on the final version.
The website is also the occasion to take the public stance that we are a true archive and that once something is in the Archives, it’s there for good. We do not sell. I’ve been thinking about the future of my collection for a while now and I felt it was time to make sure it can outlive me. I believe that the collection I have put together which is the work of thirty plus years should not run the risk of being dispersed.
Items from the collections of ScienceFictionArchives.com will be displayed in various parts of the world in the future. We encourage loans from fellow collectors who would like to be part of our adventure and have some of their items properly and safely displayed in museums (anonymously or not). We are also always looking for interesting items to purchase, of course. Building the Archives is an ongoing process.
Details about both the archive and the museum exhibition can be found at their respective websites.
www.ScienceFictionArchives.com:
Photos taken by David Oliver of Propmasters can be found on the Propmasters Facebook Page.
Special thanks to Arnaud for sharing the news and congratulations on the new endeavors.
Jason DeBord