Paris is a party. Or at least that's what the official propaganda wanted us to believe. As the climax of July 14 approached, the number of inaugurations, festivals, and events increased. One of the most significant was “Magiciens de la Terre,” the grand official art exhibition of the bicentennial, presented with great fanfare as the “first world exhibition of contemporary art.”

What does this mean? The organizing committee, noting that so-called international exhibitions only feature artists from the “developed world,” decided to select representatives from across the globe. This is how the work of a Nigerian sculptor can be viewed on an equal footing with that of a European, or that of a painter from New Guinea alongside that of a Japanese artist, and so on...[+]