Björn Dalhström: Cosmopolitan Director of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco

With Casablanca, Paris, New York, Luxembourg, Cape Town, Marrakech and Médan behind him, Björn Dahlström's borderless career path is practically a manifesto. An art historian, École du Louvre graduate and creator of five museums, the director of the NMNM (New National Museum of Monaco) has succeeded Marie-Claude Beaud, making the most of a cosmopolitan experience and an across-the-board approach to history and creation. You have headed very different projects, covering ethnography, political history, fashion and contemporary art alike. Do they reflect the direction you are taking with the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco? In 2000, while I was in New York completing the inventory of Bob Wilson's collection at the Watermill Center, Marie-Claude Beaud, then working on the concept for the Luxembourg Musée d'Art Moderne, asked me to join her. I worked and trained with her for seven years, supervising the MUDAM's contemporary program. The 50th Venice Biennale established our commitment by awarding a Golden Lion to the Luxembourg artist Su-Mei Tse. Bob Wilson and Marie-Claude Beaud instilled a decompartmentalized…