Material history of the work
Monika Neuner is a conservator-restorer, with a diploma in painting from the French National Institute of Cultural Heritage. Since graduating, she has been working on painted works, in particular for museums and in buildings protected as historic monuments. She works on both the paint layer and the substrate. In 2018, she led the team that restored the Contrescarpe sign and also provided the museum with recommendations for the proper long-term conservation of the work. In 2020, she carried out an additional operation to harmonise the varnish and adapt the frame, with a view to displaying the work at the museum. In this interview, she describes the operations carried out on the sign.
Presence of the black community in France from the 18th to the 20th century
A tour guide since 2011, Kévi Donat offers guided tours of Paris. In 2013, he founded Paris Noir (‘Black Paris’), a project aimed at shedding light on the history of men and women from the “Black world” who played an important role in the political, intellectual or cultural history of Paris but who are little known today. Since 2021, he has been working with the Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery to produce “Dans la bibliothèque du Paris noir” podcasts. He also hosts the “Histoire de...” television program on La Première, the portal for overseas France, which offers walking tours in the footsteps of some well-known overseas personalities living in Paris. The Carnavalet Museum – History of Paris has also been working with him since 2024.
A deep dive into the “Au Nègre Joyeux” sign produced in the colonial context
Emmanuelle Sibeud is a professor of contemporary history at Paris 8 University and a member of Joint Research Unit 8533, “Institutions and historical dynamics of the economy and society”. Her research focuses on the history of colonial societies, the decolonisation of knowledge and the history of racism in France in the 20th century. She was a member of the scientific committee set up around the Contrescarpe sign in 2018.
The representation of Black people in Western art
Art historian Anne Lafont is a researcher and director of studies at the School for Higher Education in the Social Sciences. Specialising in 18th and 19th century art, in particular the painter Anne-Louis Girodet, she is particularly interested in the representation of black bodies and the role of these representations in the colonial and post-colonial context. She was a member of the scientific committee for the “Le modèle noir” exhibition, displayed from March to July 2019 at the Musée d’Orsay. She was a member of the scientific committee set up around the Contrescarpe sign in 2018.