1931 Les Etrangers au Temps de l’Exposition Coloniale

Eric Breitbart writing for I V Y paris

Paris is a city of museums—the Louvre, the Pompidou, the Musée d’Orsay, the Grand and Petit Palais, the Picasso Museum—all justly world famous. With so much to see, and so little time, even for Parisians, it’s easy to forget about Paris’ “other” museums that are off the beaten track yet no less deserving.

One of them is the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration in the 12e arrondissement. Originally known as the Musée Coloniale, the museum has gone through a number of name changes before arriving at its current, politically correct one.

The building itself, built in 1928 for the Colonial Exposition, is an architectural gem, worthy of a visit on its own, but it’s the current exhibit, “1931. Les étrangers au temps de l’Exposition coloniale,” that should draw crowds to the Porte Dorée.       

It’s easy to think that today’s controversy over foreigners living in France is a recent phenomenon, produced by globalization, immigration from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and the current economic crisis. Yet the situation in 1931 was even more dire because of the 1929 stock market crash, which sent shock waves through France and “foreigners”, whether or not they came from France’s colonies, were an easy target to blame.

The Colonial Exposition was conceived as a celebration of France’s empire “in all its diversity and all its grandeur,” but the presence of more than 3 million foreigners at a time of widespread unemployment and economic distress led to calls for expulsion, racism, and anti-semitism—a complex situation that is admirably presented through texts, visual displays, photographs, and personal testimonies. One of the large photo murals in the exhibit says it all: a group of demonstrators dressed up in Santa Claus costumes for Christmas 1931, carrying signs saying “Père Noel only buys French toys. Follow his example”. An eerie sense of déjà vu.

Now through September 7, 2008

Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration
Palais de la Porte Dorée
293, avenue Daumesnil 75012 Paris

Comments

[suzanne]

gotta go, gotta go. I have always been intruiged by this building but only been to that "end" of Paris a few times a year. I will definitly make time to see this show.

thanks eric