Senghor and the Arts. Reimagining Universalism puts into perspective the reflections and achievements in the field of culture of the Senegalese intellectual and statesman, president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1909- 2001). A pioneer of Négritude, a political and literary movement initiated with Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, Suzanne Césaire, Jane and Paulette Nardal, Senghor defended the idea of a civilisation of the universal, shaped by the “encounter of giving and receiving”. With this metaphor of exchange and “cultural crossbreeding”, he hoped to unite traditions and engage in the “dialogue of culture”.

By reinventing and de-westernising the notion of the universal, he affirms the role of Africa in the writing its history. The exhibition looks back at Senegalese cultural policy and diplomacy in the aftermath of independence, its major achievements in the field of visual and performing arts, but also its limitations. Senghor’s thinking has not left the generations born after independence indifferent; it has been widely discussed, criticised and commented upon over successive re-readings.