VIDEO. In Toulouse, dare Joséphine, the new exhibition that pays tribute to Baker
The Departmental Museum of Resistance & Deportation is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Joséphine Baker until October 29.
The exhibition in question is called “Josephine, a life of commitments”. In the plural. It highlights the complex personality of Josephine Baker (1906-1975). Dancer, singer, magazine leader, film actress, committed woman, resistance fighter, mother… Joséphine Baker was all of these at the same time. Yet nothing destined this poor mestizo, born in the black neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, on June 3, 1906, in the light of the scene. After a very promising debut in the first Revue noire in New York, Josephine Baker arrived in Paris in 1925 and left a country hostile to blacks. In the French capital, the young woman then feels free. She immediately triumphed in the Revue Nègre, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysée. In the colonialist France of the time, Joséphine Baker was popular, we only talked about her, she was even asked to play the African.
an icon that everyone is snapping up in Paris
An icon of modernity in the 1930s, Joséphine Baker inspired many artists, as evidenced by the sketches by Corbusier, Henri Laurens and Paul Colin, presented at the Toulouse museum. For her part, the artist uses her body and her image as tools to claim and affirm her freedom as a woman and mixed race.
This weekend: open days
This weekend, open days at the Departmental Museum of Resistance & Deportation, with:
Saturday June 25:
– from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.: artistic workshops around the values carried by Joséphine Baker in her fights for human rights, and around her impact in the world of art and fashion.
– 2 p.m.: Akio Bouillon Baker, a son of Joséphine, will discuss with the public.
– 6 p.m.: jazz concert with the group “Le petit Orléans”
– Sunday: guided tours of the exhibition at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 3.30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Exhibition “Josephine Baker, a life of commitments”, from June 25 to October 29 at the Departmental Museum of Resistance & Deportation, 52 Allée des Demoiselles, in Toulouse. Free admission, open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Information and reservations: 05 34 33 17 40. musee-resistance.haute-garonne.fr
This exhibition evokes other facets of the artist, highlighting his commitment from the start of the Second World War, with the soldiers mobilized on the front. Unexpected excerpts from his correspondence with General de Gaulle are to be discovered on this occasion.
How can we mention Joséphine Bayer without mentioning the Château des Milandes in the Dordogne, where she settled in 1940 and founded her “Rainbow Tribe” which campaigns for equality and peace between peoples.
Joséphine Baker died in 1975, after 50 years of career. This exhibition is an opportunity to discover new works from private collections or on loan from museums: posters, photographs, sculptures, pendants, dresses and even her hair gel (the Baker fix)…. We also see rare shots of the Toulouse photographer Germaine Chaumel who immortalized Joséphine Baker during her visit to Toulouse in 1938.
In short, we have here a very colorful retrospective. Like Josephine Baker!