These words by the American futurist and filmmaker Ytasha L. Womack resonate deeply with the French artist Rapha\u00ebl Barontini\u2019s practice. Womack\u2019s critique highlights a profound issue in cultural representation: although the absence of Black people from historical narratives is problematic, the erasure becomes even more stark in speculative spaces. Even in imaginative realms that can conceive of fantastical futures\u2014with interstellar travel, talking animals, and time manipulation\u2014the inability to envision non-white protagonists represents a profound failure of creative imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barontini\u2019s exhibition Somewhere in the Night, the People Dance<\/em>\u2014a profound reimagining of historical and future narratives that centres Black sovereignty, agency, and imagination\u2014responds directly to this challenge. As I stand before the work C\u00e9cile Fatiman, la Princesse du Royaume du Nord<\/em> (2015), Womack\u2019s insights echo powerfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This large print on cotton with embroidery showcases a Black princess. Wearing a grand seventeenth-century dress embellished with a radiant sun collar and an eye mask, she carries a red flag as she rides a white stallion in front of a cosmic night sky set against a backdrop dotted with palm trees. C\u00e9cile Fatiman was a Vodou priestess who played a crucial role in the Haitian Revolution, participating in the legendary Bois Ca\u00efman ceremony of 1791 that helped spark the uprising against French colonial rule. Barontini\u2019s reimagining of this revolutionary figure as royalty exemplifies his objective to elevate and mythologize Black historical figures. As the introduction to his solo debut at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the monumental work prepares visitors for what lies behind the entrance wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the exhibition\u2019s title suggests, visitors can expect a celebration of Black sovereignty that flourishes in the shadow of colonialism. The show\u2019s layout is designed as a ball at which Black royalty, aristocrats, and heroes come together to dance\u2014a metaphor for resistance and cultural resilience. This nocturnal celebration references the historical secret gatherings of enslaved people throughout the Caribbean and the Americas, where cultural traditions were preserved, and revolutionary ideas exchanged, away from the surveillance of colonial powers. The gallery\u2019s design is inspired by the Sans Souci Palace in Milot, Haiti, which now lies in ruins. Built between 1810 and 1813 by Haitian King Henri Christophe, whose royal family portrait hung on the end wall of its gallery, the palace was named provocatively after Frederick the Great\u2019s Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, and symbolized Haiti\u2019s post-revolutionary ambitions and declarations of cultural independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first gallery showcases a selection of characters drawn from both historical records and Barontini\u2019s imagination. A wall of three court portraits presents his cast of imaginary figures: Islander Empress<\/em> (2022), Queen Ooni Luwoo<\/em> (2024), and Le griot de l’\u00e9ternel<\/em> (2025). Queen Ooni Luwoo references the twenty-first ruler of Ile-Ife in present-day Nigeria and one of its few female monarchs; \u201cgriot\u201d refers to West African storytellers who preserved oral histories across generations. These portraits exemplify a form of visual cr\u00e9olisation<\/em>, in which Barontini has blended influences from the Italian and Flemish Renaissance\u2014evident in the costumes, poses, and compositional strategies\u2014with Haitian cultural ceremonial practices, the Fang culture of Gabon, and colonial photography. This syncretic approach reflects the cultural intermixing that emerged from colonial encounters while reclaiming agency in how these histories are told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain iconographic elements appear throughout, including Napoleon\u2019s bicorne hat (reclaimed and subverted from the French colonizer defeated by the Haitian Revolution); the ikul<\/em> knife from Dahomey (present-day Benin), representing the powerful West African kingdom that resisted European colonization until 1894; and broken antiquity columns that reference, simultaneously, European classical traditions and their deliberate fragmentation in Barontini\u2019s decolonial aesthetic approach. These recurring symbols form a visual lexicon through which Barontini challenges dominant historical narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To emphasize the jubilant atmosphere, a large collection of Barontini\u2019s costume creations was assembled to fill the two exhibition spaces, crafting an immersive environment that evokes both a masquerade ball and a revolutionary gathering. As viewers stand in the first gallery, they can gaze over a railing into the lower gallery, which Barontini describes as a \u201cthrone room\u201d\u2014a spatial hierarchy that invites visitors to contemplate power relations within the exhibition space itself. This exhibition marks his first venture into embroidery, a traditionally labour-intensive craft that adds another dimension to his exploration of material histories. With the help of fifteen embroiderers over 13,600 hours, he created over a dozen gowns, suits of armour, and capes adorned with extravagant ornaments resembling those worn by the characters in his portraits. This collaborative production process resonates with the collective resistance of historical revolutionary movements while drawing attention to the often-invisible labour that underpins cultural production. Through this theatrical staging of alternative history, Barontini invites viewers to imagine different trajectories for post-colonial societies\u2014ones in which Black sovereignty is celebrated rather than suppressed and cultural hybridity becomes a source of strength rather than a mark of subjugation. The exhibition thus functions not merely as a display of artworks but as a space for reimagining historical possibilities and collective futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curator at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta University for the Arts, in Mohkinstsis\/Calgary, Treaty 7 region, Tak Pham holds a BA (Hons.) in history and theory of architecture from Carleton University and an MFA in criticism and curatorial practices from OCAD University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n![\"Raphael-Barontini_CecileFatima_2025\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/web_avril_Pham_Raphael-Barontini_CecileFatima_2025.jpg\")
C\u00e9cile Fatiman, la princesse du royaume du nord<\/em>, exhibition view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2024.
\u00a9 ADAGP, Paris \/ CARCC, Ottawa, 2025
Photo: courtesy of the artist & Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Raphael-Barontini_vueexposition\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/web_avril_Pham_Raphael-Barontini_vueexposition_14.jpg\")
Somewhere in the Night, The People Dance,<\/em> exhibition views, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2025.
\u00a9 ADAGP, Paris \/ CARCC, Ottawa, 2025
Photos: Aur\u00e9lien Mole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Raphael-Barontini_vueexposition\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/web_avril_Pham_Raphael-Barontini_vueexposition_18.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Raphael-Barontini_QueenOoniLuwoo_2024\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/web_avril_Pham_Raphael-Barontini_QueenOoniLuwoo_2024-scaled.jpg\")
Queen Ooni Luwoo<\/em>, 175 \u00d7 146 cm, 2024.
\u00a9 ADAGP, Paris \/ CARCC, Ottawa, 2025
Photo: Fabrice Gousset, Gary Metzner & Scott Johnson Collection, courtesy of the artist & Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n