Paris’s 23rd annual Nuit Blanche, scheduled to begin this evening (June 1st) at 18h, promises to be an especially enjoyable and thought-provoking event. The theme of this year’s arts festival is les Outre-mer, that is, the overseas territories of France, a theme chosen with the Olympic and Paralympic values of friendship and respect for differences in mind, according Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Under the artistic direction of Claire Tancons, over 200 artistic productions, of various forms, will be presented throughout the city and its bonlieu.
The evening is a celebration of “‘polygonal’ France,” Carine Rolland expresses, Paris’s deputy mayor: France is enriched by the representation of its diverse territories, from Guadeloupe to Réunion Island, from Martinique to French Polynesia. At least, this is the message Hidalgo’s team hopes to underscore tonight, while simultaneously promoting the the 2024 Summer Olympics. As such, one should not be caught unawares to encounter in one venue a fencing-themed modern dance performance to a chamber orchestra accompaniment and, in another venue, an exhibition exploring Guyanese pharmacopoeia and racial injustice in maternity care.
What is special about this year’s Nuit Blanche is this: for the first time, several overseas territories are simultaneously organising their own Nuit Blanche events. New Caledonia, Réunion Island, Mayotte, Martinique and Guadeloupe are each offering a Nuit Blanche programme, extending the reach of the event across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This reach helps, symbolically, to provide the event here in Paris with a framework for addressing the “political, aesthetic, and social issues” contingent on colonialism and globalism, according to Tancons. What is more, this year’s Nuit Blanche is scheduled “on the eve of a new Olympics and Paralympic era,” 100 years after the first presentation of the Games in Paris—needless to say le Mairie de Paris is committed to offering us a very busy night.
Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of previewing a handful of the exhibitions programmed for Nuit Blanche. I began at Le Carreau du Temple in Le Marais, and nearly five hours later, after having made my way through numerous arrondissements and the bonlieu Villejuif, I found myself at the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in the 7th. There is much to say about each of the exhibitions I previewed, but rather than share every detail, perhaps it is best one enters into the night blindly, allowing oneself to be surprised at where it will lead and what one will see along the way.
One recommendation, however, would be to pass by the Musée du quai Branly, Paris’s museum dedicated to the indigenous art and cultures of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Wander the museum’s gardens between 19h and midnight to enjoy “L’Antre-deux,” a series of mural paintings by Caribbean visual artist Ronald Cyrille, also known as B. BIRD. His murals depict scenes of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures which blend in a jarring manner the human with the animal and plant worlds to explore the ‘magico-religious’ universe of Creole imagery. At 20h30, 21h30, 22h30 and 23h30 this evening, a twenty-minute dance performance will be held in the same gardens, which is sure to stir in viewers the same feelings of pleasure, and perhaps even discomfort, as the surrounding murals will. “L’Antre-deux” was definitely a highlight of the evening.
For details regarding tonight’s programme, follow this link: https://www.paris.fr/nuit-blanche-2024
