With “Tituba, who to protect us?” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris until January 5, 2025, the works of around ten artists echo the novel by the Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé, who died this year. The curator of the exhibition Amandine Nana gives us all the keys to better understand this experience, in “L’Oreille est boldie”.
The project was born several months before April 2, the date on which the prolific author Maryse Conde left us. A project which did not deviate from its main idea despite the pain caused by the disappearance of the Guadeloupean writer, namely: bringing together around ten visual artists whose work could relate to one of her most famous novels Me, Tituba, black witch of Salem.
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©Aurélien Mole
A connection orchestrated by Amandine Nanaone of the commissioners of the Tokyo Palace, with highlighted themes: ancestrality, the use of “invisibles” and other protective spirits, the strength that we can draw from them even today; questions distilled throughout Maryse Condé’s novel.
Amandine Nana looks back on the origins of this exhibition Tituba, who to protect us? and guides us between the rooms of the Palais de Tokyo, in the podcast The Ear is bold :
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Naudline Pierre, Abigail Lucien, Rhea Dillon, Miryam Charles, Monika Emmanuelle Kazi, Naomi Lulendo, Inès Di Folco Jemni, Liz Johnson Artur, Tanoa Sasraku, Claire Zaniolo, Massabielle Brun : eleven artists sign the installations, photographs, sculptures, videos and other works making up the exhibition Tituba…. Artists, women, black, from France and the Caribbean, from Great Britain, from the United States, they all share a vision of their world today built on the foundations of a History that is sometimes violent in terms of uprooting. A world that they tell both on a universal and intimate level…
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©Aurélien Mole
Amandine Nana therefore brought them together, sometimes by summoning works created for this exhibition, sometimes by exhibiting others previously created but fitting perfectly into the themes raised in the novel. Well, Tituba… by Maryse Condé.
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©Aurélien Mole
From the symbolism of a cabinet lying on the floor, containing broken crystal dishes, work by Rhea Dillon, A Caribbean Ossuary – listen to the podcast and the explanations of Amandine Nana – to the installation by the artist of Guadeloupean origin Claire Zaniolo spread over time which explores the full scope of the theme of family (Portrait of mine), through photographic work on the Black Lives Matter movement, printed on pages of Braille books, work by Liz Johnson Artur (Time Don’t Run Here)… from the most explicit to the most sensory, all invite us to create or keep the link with our ancestralities, to “communicate with [nos] invisible” as Maryse Condé said…
In The Ear is boldyou will be able to experience in almost audio description some of these creations which articulate the exhibition thanks to the evocations of the curator of Tituba, who to protect us?.
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For those too far from Paris, let yourself be guided by The Ear… and by Amandine Nana and for others who have the possibility and the chance to go to the Palais de Tokyo, do not hesitate to discover this exhibition full of meaning and sensations, revolving around one of the most mystical novels of the Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé.
The exhibition curator Amandine Nana in The Ear is boldit’s HERE !
Or here:
The exhibition “Tituba, who to protect us?” is on view until January 5, 2025 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
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©Aurélien Mole
