Emmanuel Kasarhérou

Emmanuel Kasarhérou was born in 1960 in Nouméa, New Caledonia. Chief Heritage Curator, he earned a degree in Oceanic Languages and Civilisations in 1981 from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) research institution and holds a postgraduate degree in art history and archaeology from Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (1985).

On 27 May 2020, he was appointed President of the Établissement public du musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Emmanuel Kasarhérou, after he has been Deputy Head of Heritage and Collections at the musée. He was reappointed in May 2023 for a further 3-year term. He was formerly head of the Kanak Cultural Development Agency (ADCK) and the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouméa. His mandate as President of the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac was renewed for 3 years in May 2023.

Emmanuel Kasarhérou is a specialist in Kanak culture. He was co-curator of the exhibition ‘Kanak, art is a Statement’ presented at the musée du quai Branly in 2013 then at the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouméa in 2014. With Roger Boulay, he co-authored Kanak. L’art est une parole. Arles: musée du quai Branly, Actes Sud (2013). Emmanuel Kasarhérou was also co-curator of the exhibition ‘20 Years of Collection Enrichment. Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac’ in 2019. Since 2016, he is the president of the Société des océanistes, a scientific society founded in 1945 at the Musée de l’Homme.