Artist Raphaël Barontini offers a reinterpretation of history, particularly African and Caribbean history, by presenting dynamic and fluid narratives that blend contemporary techniques with archives from the past. He explores figuration and the tradition of classical painting through a selection of recent works or pieces created specifically for the exhibition. Paintings, costumes, textile pieces, sound works and performances are showcased in an original scenography. The exhibition forms a comprehensive and generous narrative, blending the real and the fictional, and bringing together the artist’s different areas of research by proposing a renewal of imaginaries.

The title of the exhibition, “Somewhere in the Night, the People Dance”, is inspired by a passage from Aimé Césaire’s play The Tragedy of King Christophe. Published in 1963, it explores the challenges the Haitian people faced in building a new nation after the years of fighting slavery and colonisation. It focuses on the figure of Henri Christophe, general of the Haitian revolution and self-proclaimed king. The title also evokes the joy that the power of the collective can bring to all cultures.