Whether the New Caledonian government ever intended such to bring so much attention to the island became largely irrelevant after they selected Piano as the winner of an invite-only international competition in 1991. Its objective was to solicit ideas for a center that would celebrate the Kanak culture native to New Caledonia, and in the process, smooth over ethnic tensions that had been chronically deteriorating between the Kanak people and the island’s other inhabitants. That it would orchestrate an international talent search to recognize its local culture was a source of irony and criticism, made even more poignant by the historically strained relationship between the Kanaks and the ever-encroaching influence of modernizatio