Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration
Le Palais de la Port Dorée, Paris
Museum of the Immigration temporary exhibition: ‘J’ai deux amours’
Part of the exhibition space, all at the top floor of the Cité building, is also devoted at temporary exhibition: during the visit there was the show ‘J’ai deux amours’ presenting the work of artists dealing with the theme of immigration belonging to the museum collection (406 works by 37 artists). In the institutional words:
‘La Cité présente une exposition centrée sur le regard des artistes contemporains avec une sélection d’œuvres d’art des collections du Musée, récemment acquises et pour certaines jamais exposées.’
[visit the web-site of the exhibition]
This is a very interesting part of the Cité programme, due the fact the idea to use Contemporary Art and Curatorial Art practice as a mean to investigate topics connected with migrations is quite unique and innovative: in our MeLa project we have a specific Research Field (nr. 04) lead by The Royal Collage of Art in London completely involved in the use of Art and Curatorial practice to investigate themes and questions related to the role of museums in citizenship and identity makers considering phenomena such as migrations and Europeanization of Europe.
Also here, it seams to be a lack of curatorial art practice and the collection works selected for the show don’t really convince to be meaningful for the cause of migrants: stereotypes like baggage and travel shots without strong art-power impact.
This is very strange because some the exhibited artists are quite famous; here is the full list : Kader Attia, Taysir Batniji, Bruno Boudjelal, Mohamed Bourouissa, Chen Zhen, Denis Darzacq, Ad Van Denderen, Claire Fontaine, Ghazel, Mona Hatoum, Karim Kal, Bouchra Khalili, Kimsooja, Thomas Mailaender, Malik Nejmi, Melik Ohanian, Rajak Ohanian, Mathieu Pernot, Bruno Serralongue, Shen Yuan, Djamel Tatah, Barthélémy Toguo.
[look details on exhibition website]
The exhibition is diveded in the five following thematic sections all connnected by a ‘Fil conductor’ (works selected to bridge the different parts of the show):
1. Départ, voyage circulations
2. Entre rêve et nécessité
3. Frontières : passages et contrôles
4. Vivre ensable
5. Réinventer son univers
post by Prof. Gennaro Postiglione