Léopold Sédar Senghor and the arts in the spotlight at the musée du quai Branly
Detail of the poster for the exhibition “Senghor and the Arts.
Reinventing the Universal”, from February 7 to November 19, 2023 at the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.
© quai Branly museum - Jacques Chirac, DA / g6 design
Text by: José Marinho Follow
1 min
With its new exhibition “Senghor and the arts.
Reinventing the Universal", the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris looks back on the legacy left by the poet and the first president of Senegal after his independence in 1960. Unpublished documents, period posters, books, drawings and more works of art, portray this great defender of black culture.
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Senghor was one of the main protagonists of the affirmation of black culture in Paris and of the concept of negritude, a political and literary movement against French colonial contempt.
Sarah Ligner is the co-curator of the exhibition: "
The birth of this movement of negritude on culture and the need for an African writing of history, this is what will take the format of the first Congress of black writers and artists at the Sorbonne in 1956
.
President of Senegal from 1960 to 1980, Léopold Sédar Senghor created the first World Festival of Negro Arts: "
The holding of this first festival in 1966 in Dakar, which saw the organization of an incredible exhibition ''Art nègre'' , which presented more than 500 African sculptures, contributed to the emergence of places of training, places of diffusion, where each culture contributes to this civilization of the universal.
»
A virtuoso of international cultural diplomacy, he was also the target of protests against his increasingly official vision of art, which made him leave power: “
Criticized because he was considered too Francophile.
The very realistic exhibition reflects all of these contradictory data.
Mamadou Diouf, historian and curator of the “Senghor and the arts” exhibition. “Africa is thought of internationally…” [J. Marinho]
71 CULT _Son SON AF MAMADOU DIOUF HISTORIAN AND EXPO CURATOR SENGHOR
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Senghor and the arts.
Reinventing the Universal
, on view until November 19, 2023 at the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris.
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