At La Villette, the Napoleon exhibition sums up an "immense and controversial" character

INTERVIEW

The return of cultural life, with the lifting of certain prohibitions on Wednesday, also marks the return of major exhibitions. Like the one that will open at the Grande Halle de La Villette from May 28, and dedicated to Napoleon on the occasion of the bicentenary of the emperor's death. It offers visitors a river route, from the birth of Bonaparte in Corsica to his death in Saint Helena. The stroll is punctuated by 18 videos which place this character in his time.

"Exhibitions on Napoleon, obviously, there were many, at Fontainebleau or at the Invalides. But there, the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre, Fontainebleau, the Army Museum, the Napoleon Foundation, all the major museums are are gathered to lend key pieces, like the bivouac of Austerlitz ", greets Sunday at the microphone of

Didier Fusillier, the president of the public establishment of the park and the Grande Halle de La Villette.

Approaching "a controversial character" face-to-face

While the celebration of Napoleon's bicentenary has stirred public debate in recent weeks, especially because slavery was restored under his reign, Didier Fusillier ensures that no part of the trajectory of Corsica has been eluded in this exhibition.

"He's a huge figure in our history, but he's also a controversial figure," he admits.

"What we will approach thanks to the Foundation for the memory of slavery and its president Jean-Marc Ayrault. He brought us two very important documents which show the signature of Napoleon on the reestablishment of slavery", indicates our guest .

"We are also showing how it can fit into this era."

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An era of profound transformations

This exhibition will also evoke the wind of reforms which, once the chasm of the Revolution had been crossed, brought France from the Ancien Régime to the modern era, in particular with the drafting of the Civil Code, the Family Code, the creation of of the Banque de France, or that of the prefectures.

It will also be a question of artistic proliferation under the First Empire, in particular in the decorative arts.

"And all this lasted only 14 years, that is to say two seven years. It is striking. We are amazed by the energy that there was in the country at that time", marvels Didier Fusillier.

A piece not to be missed? "A sedan that comes from Fontainebleau", slips the director of the Grande Halle. This vehicle was part of the wedding procession of Napoleon and his second wife, the Austrian Marie-Louise, in 1810. "This sedan is extremely fragile. It can no longer drive. It is wrapped in a kind of canvas which ensures it is secure. a permanent humidity level. She arrived in the last few days, she had never gone out. "