Screening of the film “Restoring African Art, the Ghosts of Colonization”

Screening of the film “Restore African Art, the Ghosts of Colonization”, by Laurent Védrine - 2021 - 63 minutes – presented by Édouard Aujaleu (philosopher & teacher-trainer), in partnership with the Friends of the Musée Fabre.

In November 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to resolve a long-standing issue of more than half a century: the restitution of artworks stolen from African countries during the colonial era. The task is no simple one. Today, more than 90% of major pieces of African art are located outside the continent, including a significant number in France.

This unprecedented and expected decision by a former colonial power has raised, on the one hand, wild hope among African nations and, on the other, is facing strong resistance.

The dispute over restitutions has focused on one work in particular. Apollinaire considered it "the most graceful and astonishing object in Paris." The god Gou was stolen from Benin in 1894 and is now on display at the Louvre Museum in the Pavillon des Cessions.

By portraying this voodoo sculpture, a black deity and fetish of white people, Restituer l'art africain, les fantômes de la colonisation tells the story of a quarrel that continues before our eyes. A centuries-old international battle whose rumblings can still be heard today from the palaces of the French Republic to the alleys of Cotonou, from the sidewalks of Pigalle to the aisles of the European Parliament, and from the walls of MoMA to the hushed salons of UNESCO.

Rabelais Room