On the occasion of the meeting with author Claire Riffard on Thursday 5 November at 18:30 for the publication of her book Dans l'atelier de Léopold Sédar Senghor, we invite you to the Batignolles library for the exhibition En compagnie de Senghor : quand la Culture rencontre la diplomatie from 13 October to 31 December 2026.
This exhibition presents a new face of Léopold Sédar Senghor. Not that of the solitary poet, writing in the intimacy of his room after long walks on the beach, but the public figure: a deputy meeting his constituents in a Senegalese village, a president on an official trip alongside Georges Pompidou, or discovering a work of art in the company of the painter Marc Chagall.
The photographs come from the archive collection of Jean-Gérard Bosio. On the recommendation of Georges Pompidou to his friend Senghor, Jean-Gérard Bosio worked alongside the Senegalese president from 1968, with the mission of having Senegalese artists and art recognised internationally. He was notably the initiator of exhibitions of world-renowned artists (Picasso, Chagall, Soulages, Manessier…) at the Musée dynamique in Dakar, as well as of the exhibition L'art sénégalais, held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1974. His archive collection, open since 1969, is rich in documents, correspondence and artworks that make it a literary and artistic ensemble of the first order.
The exhibition has already been staged at the CNRS Pouchet site as well as at the Cité Universitaire before moving to our library.