Once upon a time... in Bollywood

Warning: misleading title! Entitled "Bollywood Superstars", this exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly aims to tell the story of one of the most abundant cinemas in the world, arrived in India in the luggage of the British.

However, observes Julien Rousseau, co-curator of the exhibition, from the beginning "foreign films do not interest many people in India". This explains why "we will quickly adapt classic local stories and in particular mythological stories," he told AFP.

To the point that "the film industry will be inextricably linked to the construction of a national feeling" (the country becomes independent in 1947, editor's note), he develops.

Detail of the exhibition "Bollywood Superstars" at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris on September 25, 2023 © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

What makes the salt of this industry - known for its sumptuous sets and costumes as well as its dances - comes from the "history and arts" of this former power, which reached its peak under the Mughal reign, says Julien Rousseau.

Paintings, photos, figurines, clothes ... The exhibition (scheduled until January 2024) exposes how the 7th art has drawn from these resources to stand out from the Hollywood ogre.

- A thousand and one perfumes from the Orient -

This is a project that has been going on for years, probably even since the opening of the Arab World Institute in 1987: an olfactory exhibition dedicated to "Perfumes of the Orient" (until March 2024).

The visitor is greeted by woody notes such as oud wood or myrrh. Not to mention the rose. So much for the sensory experience. Intellectual experience is also at the rendezvous.

Manuscripts, paintings, photographs, perfume boxes, thousand-year-old censers... "We wanted to show that the Arab world is the cradle of a perfume civilization," Agnès Carayon, co-curator of the exhibition, told AFP.

A civilization that dates back to antiquity and finds its source in Arabia, land of incense and ambergris. Perfumes are "present in many aspects of Arab society, full of uses," continues the curator.

Whether in the kitchen - where roses, orange blossoms or saffron are kings - or in homes - perfumed with these aromas - as in places like hammams, perfumes "are an integral part of people, and their identity," says the curator.

Les Pagnes: African history(s)

Less known (and less noble) than their great rival, wax, African loincloths - these inexpensive and emblematic fabrics of sub-Saharan Africa - are proudly displayed at the Quai Branly.

Be careful, warns the curator of the exhibition, Sarah Ligner, not just any: those with commemorative scope, therefore political. In total, about fifty of these colorful fabrics, witnesses of the upheavals of the history of this region over the last 50 years, are exposed to the public.

More than decorative objects, they are "objects of memory", insists the commissioner to AFP. These colourful fabrics, mostly floral patterns, have been commissioned for election campaigns, World Cups or independence anniversaries.

Like the green and yellow one, with the portrait of Léopold Sédar Senghor in its center, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Senegal's independence. Another returns to "Franco-African friendship", with a portrait of General de Gaulle at its centre. All around the loincloth, chains, allusion to the French colonization in Africa.

The exhibition also gives pride of place to "feminist loincloths", praising personalities such as the Malian Aoua Keïta, an independentist and feminist figure in her country.

© 2023 AFP