Every year, Paris and its suburbs pull an all-nighter of culture on Nuit Blanche – literally “white night” – when the city hosts a cocktail of art, performance and discovery. This year’s edition, taking place on Saturday, celebrates the melting pot of cultures in French overseas territories from the Caribbean to the Pacific and everywhere in between.
Curator Claire Tancons has spent the afternoon in a warehouse in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis checking the finishing touches to one of the artworks that will be displayed at this year's Nuit Blanche.
"Edgar Arceneaux's painting is drying, and hopefully tomorrow the weather will hold," she tells RFI by phone, referring to a metallic canvas by the American artist that will provide the outdoor stage for a sunset performance at the ancient Roman arena of Montmartre.
Based in California and descended from Creole heritage, Arceneaux has teamed up with actor Alex Barlas to explore France's historic connection to the Americas and its impact on today's diaspora, in a piece called The Mirror Is You.
It's just one of over a hundred events concocted for this vast ephemeral event, which begins at 7pm on Saturday and lasts all night long.
The theme this year is overseas France – a vast patchwork of territories and cultures, spanning the globe from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean and on to the South Pacific.
"Given what we know of contemporary geopolitics, I’m not in the mood for celebrating," Tancons admits.
She's referring to tense situations in several of France's overseas territories, including drought in Martinique, slum clearances in Mayotte, the uprising and crackdown in New Caledonia and a curfew for minors in Guadeloupe.
Born and bred in Guadeloupe herself, but having travelled and worked most of her adult life elsewhere, Tancons could see that it would be impossible to avoid the politics of such a theme.
Her solution as a curator was to look for projects that would bring historical perspective to contemporary issues.
Taking a longer view reveals that the problems the overseas territories are experiencing, she says, are "not their problems, they are everyone's problems".
Tangled histories
The pieces Tancons has selected seek to remind the audience of the connection between mainland France and its far-flung territories, which she says are too often relegated to the periphery of the French imagination.
"We tend to think: 'oh, it's something happening over there'. We don't know why they are rebelling, they're just getting on our nerves and we ask: 'what is wrong with them?'
"If you know anything about history, you will know to what extent our histories are entangled," she says.
This shared legacy is at the heart of the programme, says Tancons, pointing to the example of Kaldûn Requiem or The Invisible Country.
Written and directed by French-Algerian director Abdelwaheb Sefsaf, this sound, light and musical show recreates the intersecting destinies of diverse groups of rebels who found themselves exiled to the French penal colony of New Caledonia in the late 19th century – from the Communards of Paris to Kabyles from Algeria and ethnic Kanaks cut off from their own home.
Another performance piece, Lucioles ("Fireflies"), is a critical analysis of overseas territories, inspired by the writing of Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau and put forward by Tancons herself.
Adapted by actor-director Astrid Bayiha and accompanied by musician Délie Andjembé, the piece will be performed in Paris's historical library in the Marais district.
Olympic flavour
This year’s Nuit Blanche also ties in with the Cultural Olympiad, the celebration of art and culture taking place in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, and sport features in several of the performances across the capital and its suburbs.
Visual artist Kenny Dunkan, who hails from Guadeloupe, mixes skateboarding with sound for his show Wélélé!!! Performing on the plaza in front of Paris City Hall as well as the Place de la République, his team of skateboarders will transform themselves into human beatboxes to recreate the atmosphere of a Caribbean night, complete with birds and frogs.
Then there’s a homage to the Chevalier Saint-George, the first musician of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in Europe in the 18th century. Born Joseph Bologne in Guadeloupe in 1745, he was a violinist, conductor and composer – as well as a skilled fencer and dancer.
Celebrating his diverse talents, Guadeloupean violinist Romuald Grimbert-Barré collaborated with Johana Malédon, a dancer from French Guiana, to come up with a hybrid creation that combines music and dance with fencing.
Nuit Blanche is a programme of free cultural events organised by the City of Paris and running throughout the night of 1-2 June 2024.
Launched in Paris in 2002, it is also celebrated simultaneously in 30 other cities around the world, including Taipei, Riga and Winnipeg.
