Latitudes Exhibition at Paris City Hall Showcases Overseas Artists

The exhibition 'Latitudes' was held at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris from December 7 to 27, 2002, organized by the Délégation générale à l'Outre-mer under the direction of George Pau-Langevin. Curated by Régine Cuzin, it featured fifteen young artists from Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, and French Guiana. The show avoided ethnographic or exotic clichés, focusing instead on a shared sense of deterritorialization. Artists included Samantha Afxendio, Ernest Breleur, Rodrigue Gomblard, Valérie John, Bruno Perdurand, André Rober, Robert Radford, Thierry Tian-so-po, Marie-Jeane Viator, and Philippe Thomarel. Works ranged from Afxendio's drawings bridging island past and Parisian present to Gomblard's natural-material installations evoking Giuseppe Penone, and John's scarified paper pieces. Thomarel's schizophrenic bicolor doll installations were a highlight. The exhibition was praised for its attention to individual artistic experience and history.