New Caledonia celebrates 20 years of Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center

New Stamps of the World – By Denise McCarty 

On May 7, New Caledonia issued a 110-franc stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center.

Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the center is located on 20 acres on a peninsula near Noumea, New Caledonia’s capital, and attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually.

Piano’s unique design for the site is described as “stunning” in the review on Fodor’s website.

The review continues: “A row of 10 large, conical pavilions shaped like shells stand on a 250-meter (820-foot) ridge on Point Tinu, about 8 km (5 miles) northeast of Noumea. Each pavilion is a different size and dimension, and each contains either a permanent or temporary exhibition, such as ‘The Spirit of Oceania’ in one, and a selection of Kanak art dating from the 18th to the 20th centuries in another. The center celebrates the culture of the Kanak people, Melanesian natives of New Caledonia, who were the inhabitants of the country when France annexed it in 1853.”

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The center is named after a leader of the Kanak independence movement who was assassinated in 1989.

Marc Le Chelard designed the stamp. Philaposte printed it by offset in sheets of 10.