Tituba, qui pour nous protéger?
Palais de Tokyo , Paris, FR
October 17th 2024 - January 5th 2025

“Tituba, qui pour nous protéger?” is a group show which invites eleven artists from France, Great Britain, and North America with Carribean and African diasporic trajectories to come together around a meditation on the relationships between grief, memory, migration and ancestrality. The exhibition reflects more specifically on the everyday role played by our lost loved ones, our memories, our myths, dreams and the invisible as spiritual protectors and imaginary friends. Bringing together diverse practices including sculpture, film, photography, painting and installation, “Tituba, qui pour nous protéger ?” presents narratives which play out on a scale both intimate and collective, transgenerational and historical, but also symbolic and material.

The novel Moi, Tituba, sorcière noire de Salem (1986) by Maryse Condé serves as the departure point for the exhibition. In a poetic and sororal gesture, the eponymous character of Tituba is here invoked as a figure of protection, and the exhibition accordingly weaves together artistic and literary creation

Art exhibition featuring a colorful abstract painting with various figures on a wall and a sculpture made of yellow blocks with heart cutouts on the floor.
Book cover of 'Moi, Tituba, sorcière... Noire de Salem' by Maryse Condé, featuring a woman with a gold necklace.

Featuring the work of Naudline Pierre, Abigail Lucien, Rhea Dillon, Miryam Charles, Monika Emmanuelle Kazi, Naomi Lulendo, Inès Di Folco Jemni, Liz Johnson Artur, Tanoa Sasraku, Claire Zaniolo, Massabielle Brun

curated by Amandine Nana

Block of olive-colored soap on plastic sheet with black bucket and windowed background.

Abigail Lucien
When Day and Hour Come, 2024
cocoa butter, enamel on rebar, chicken foot, beeswax

From foreground to background:
Abigail Lucien, Naudline Pierre 

Art gallery interior with a black vertical sculpture, a staircase made of yellow heart-patterned crates, and three dark framed artworks on a white wall.
A hand holding the book 'Moi, Tituba Sorcière Noire de Salem' by Maryse Condé, placed on a speckled surface next to an open notebook with sketches, and a zipper pouch.

From foreground to background:
Abigail Lucien, Naomi Lulendo 

photos: Aurélien Mole

Exhibition view, "Tituba, who protects us?"
Palais de Tokyo, 10.17.2024 - 01.05.2025

Art installation featuring a grid with cut-out shapes of birds, rabbits, a fiery bush, and a ribbon, casting shadows on the wall.

Abigail Lucien
petite apocalypse, 2022
enamel, vinyl, and flock on steel
60 × 82 × 10 in (152.4 x 208.28 x 25.4 cm)

White metal sculpture of a stylized bird with flames on a grid background.
Decorative metal design featuring a silhouette of a rabbit against a white background.
Abstract metal sculpture with ribbons and grid-like structure, light colored, wall-mounted.

Abigail Lucien talks about their work as part of the “Tituba, who protects us?” exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2024