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1810, Installation of monument to Colbert in Paris The Palais Bourbon,where the Assemblée Nationale (legislative body, congress) meets, is originally the house of the Duchess de Bourbon (Louis XIV's daughter). It became national property in 1791 during the French Revolution to then house the legislative assembly. Under Napoleon I, the palais housed the Corps Législatif. In 1806, architect Bernard Poyet is commissioned to make a new facade. The plans include neoclassical column, reliefs that changed throughout the 1800s following France's many different regime changes, and several statues . At the bottom of the stairs, four ministers from the Ancien Regime are depicted for their contribution to the country's legislative history, but also as allegories of virtues needes for public service. The statue of Colbert by Dumont sits at the right of the ensemble, and symbolizes work ethic. The new facade is completed in 1810.
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1926, Annual ceremonie in memory of the Marne Battle in front of the monument to Gallieni in Paris The 12th anniversary of the bataille de la Marne took place on September 5th, 1926 in Paris and the nearby town of Meaux. This important battle from World War 1 was Gallieni's main military achievement in defending Paris against the German army. The commemoration ritual now included Gallieni's statue on the Esplanade des Invalides. At the foot of the monument, Pierre Godin (head of Paris city council) and Mr. Champion (vice-president of the Seine department) lay down palm leaves before going to Meaux. Parisians are encouraged to visit the oak tree planted in Gallieni's honor in the Jardin du Luxembourg.
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1926, Inauguration of the monument to Joseph Gallieni in Paris The inauguration ceremony included a military parade along the Esplanade des Invalides in the presence of public dignitaries and a press agency (see photos from the inauguration on Gallica).
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1930, Partial breaking of monument to Gallieni in Paris On 30 May 1930, the plinth of the monument to Gallieni is found partially broken. The statue representing the French colony of Indochina was damaged in four different places, including its foot. The police officer found one toenail belonging to the statue, and broken pieces of glass, which he identified as a bottle of sparkling wine. Extract from the police report (in French): « A 9 heures de service au carrefour de la rue de l’université et de l’avenue du Maréchal Gallieni. J’ai constaté que la face du socle de la statue tournée vers la direction du Champ de Mars et représentant l’Indo-Chine était détériorée en quatres [sic] endroits différents. Je n’ai trouvé que l’ongle du gros orteil du pied droit que je joins au rapport. Au pied de la statue j’ai remarqué également des éclats de verre semblant provenir d’une bouteille dit vin mousseux, ou de champagne. » After this report, the city's office contacted Jean Boucher the artist, to ask him to evaluate the damage and advise on the best way to repair the broken pieces. (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
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1932, Military funeral of André Maginot in front of the monument to Gallieni in Paris After the monument to Gallieni was installed on the Invalides esplanade, funeral processions of soldiers buried at the Invalides, such as Marshal Foch in 1929 and Marshal Lyautey in 1934, or Secretaries of War like Maginot in 1932, passed in front of the statue.
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1987, Graffiti on monument to Gallieni in Paris The exact date and what was written on the monument was not recorded, we know of these graffiti thanks to a letter by Edouard Frédéric-Dupont, mayor of the 7th arrondissement in Paris (where the monument is located), to the head of Cultural Affairs in the city of Paris, chief of the monuments office. His letter mentions that the graffiti and inscriptions were quite shocking, but did not elaborate in his letter. He asked the city to clean the monument as soon as possible. Extract in French: « Plusieurs personnes m’ont signalé que le socle du monument du Maréchal Gallieni installé place Vauban était recouvert de graffiti dont des inscriptions assez choquantes » (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
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1987, Paint thrown on Gallieni monument in Paris We know of this contestation thanks to a letter Edouard Frédéric-Dupont, mayor of the 7th arrondissement in Paris (where the monument is located), wrote to the head of Cultural Affairs in the city of Paris, chief of the monuments office. His letter mentioned that the monuments to Gallieni and Fayolle (situated on the same place Vauban) had been smeared with paint and with inscriptions which he did not record. Once again, similarly to earlier that year, he asked the city to clean the monuments as soon as possible. Extract in French: the statues « ont été badigeonnées de peinture. Au moment où tant de touristes vont venir à Paris, il serait indispensable que vous puissiez faire gratter ces inscriptions d’urgence. » (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
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1987, Removal of graffiti on monument to Gallieni in Paris The City of Paris commissions the company Harmonie-Décoration to clean the graffiti off the monument to Gallieni. The cleaning took plance on April 24 and May 5 1987. (source DACVP-COARC, Archives, Gallieni 2)
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1989, Conservation and replacement of monument to Colbert in Paris In 1989, for the bicentennial of the French Revolution, the four statues at the front of the palais Bourbon underwent conservation treatment. The originals were replaced with resin casts. The original Dumont statue of Colbert was placed in front of the rectorat in Reims, France.
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2020, Address to the French people by the President of France An extract of Emmanuel Macron's speech: This economic, ecological and solidarity-based reconstruction will be the key to our independence. It will be prepared throughout the summer with our nation's driving forces so that it can be implemented as quickly as possible. France's independence also requires unity around the Republic if we are to live better. This is the second axis of this new stage. I see us dividing over everything and sometimes losing touch with our history. We need to unite around republican patriotism. We are a nation where everyone, whatever their origins or religion, must find their place. Is this true everywhere and for everyone? No. Our fight must therefore continue and intensify to ensure that everyone gets the qualifications and jobs that match their merits and talents, and to combat the fact that name, address and skin colour all too often still reduce the equality of opportunity that everyone should have. We will be uncompromising in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and strong new decisions will be taken. But this noble fight goes astray when it is transformed into communitarianism, into a hateful or false rewriting of the past. This fight is unacceptable when it is co-opted by separatists. I am telling you very clearly this evening, my dear compatriots, the Republic will not erase any trace or any name from its History. The Republic will not take down statues. Instead, we must take a clear-sighted look together at all our history, all our memories, our relationship with Africa in particular, in order to build a present and a possible future, from one side of the Mediterranean to the other, with a desire for truth and in no way to revisit or deny what we are. Nor will we build our future in disorder. Without republican order, there can be neither security nor freedom. The police and gendarmes on our soil are the guardians of this order. They are exposed to daily risks on our behalf, which is why they deserve the support of the public authorities and the gratitude of the nation.
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2020, Anticolonial graffiti on the monument to Gallieni in Paris Following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States, antiracist protests inspired by Black Lives Matter flourish in France in the Spring of 2020. On June 16, the monument to Gallieni is graffitied with blue spray paint reading "Déboulonnons le récit officiel" (Let's take down the official narrative) on the front plinth, "Dans un musée" (In a museum), and "Etat responsable" (Responsible State) on the other sides. Next to the front graffiti, a different hand wrote: "89 000 † à Madagascar, ni oubli ni pardon" (89,000 deaths in Madagascar, no forgetting nor forgiving).
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2020, Anticolonial protest on the Gallieni monument in Paris On June 18, only a couple of days after the graffiti, antiracist activists climbed onto the monument to Gallieni and covered his statue with a black veil. Police came and arrested the people who had climbed on the statue. It is unclear whether the city pressed charges for "dégradation de bien public". French celebrity Vikash Dhorasoo, former soccer player and left-wing activist, was present and answered a journalist from Russia Today on a video that was published on twitter (see sources). Here is what he said: "On s'est dit après l'allocution de Macron qui avait un peu clos le débat, voilà c'est comme ça on déboulonne pas, on discute pas des noms de rue, des noms de stations de métro, et surtout on soutient les forces de police, on dit deux-trois petits mots sur le racisme... Alors voilà, nous on pense qu'il y a un vrai problème, qu'il y a des vrais combats qui se mènent, alors que le maire de Londres a déboulonné une statue, à Bristol ils ont fait la même chose, et nous on peut pas en discuter. Donc on voulait remettre le débat très vite sur la table. On doit, dans une démocratie, pouvoir en discuter : qu'est-ce qu'on met dans l'espace public ? C'est une question de justice, vraiment. Et puis aussi interpeller la maire Anne Hidalgo parce qu'elle est en campagne en ce moment, alors j'ai l'impression qu'elle est plus à inaugurer des pistes cyclables et des jardins partagés qu'à s'intéresser à ce qui se passe dans sa ville, notamment sur les violences policières. Pourquoi, pourquoi on s'attache à ces symboles du colonialisme, de l'esclavagisme ? C'est quelqu'un qui a tué 700 000 personnes je crois à Madagascar, pourquoi on peut pas en discuter, pourquoi on pourrait pas les mettre ailleurs, et puis raconter une autre histoire ? Parce que ça c'est une histoire des vainqueurs qu'on raconte à chaque fois. Moi je pense qu'on pourrait raconter autrement." Under this video tweet, reactions are mostly hostile, between justifications for the French Empire: "Encore un génocide totalement bidon que l'on met sur le dos des occidentaux. Gallieni a réprimé, éxécuté des caciques hostiles à la France mais développé les écoles, les hôpitaux, le chemin de fer sur l'île. Comme si le peuple de cette ile était plus heureux avant, et après!" ; calls for Dhorasoo to leave France: "Ces donneurs de leçons nous font chier, ça les empêche de vivre ces statues. La France a des traditions et valeurs ainsi qu une histoire. Allez voir ailleurs si le monde est meilleur." ; and inversions of colonial narratives inspired by the Great Replacement theory: "Les colons demandent à ce que les statues des français soient détruites pour être remplacées par celles de non français".
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2020, Critical social media posts about the monument to Gallieni in Paris Following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States, antiracist protests inspired by Black Lives Matter flourished in France in the Spring of 2020. On June 10, the popular content creator behind Histoires Crêpues, a YouTube channel, Instagram and Twitter account, shared a 4 minutes Instagram video in front of Gallieni's statue. He reposted various versions of it on Twitter and YouTube in the following days. He mentioned that on June 7, antiracist protesters took down the statue of Edward Colston, and pointed out that in France also, the streets were full of homages to colonizers and slave traders. He gave historical context on Gallieni's colonial career, his invading the then called French Sudan, in Tonkin (Vietnam), and sent to quash resisting forces in Madagascar. He linked sources to Gallieni's writings, including a passage of Gallieni's Rapport d'ensemble sur la pacification, l'organisation et la colonisation de Madagascar, where Gallieni talks about "la politique des races", a military occupation strategy where France would pit Madagascar's different ethnicities against one another, focusing on destroying the ethnic group that was the most hostile to French colonialism. The content creator argued that Gallieni was in that sense relying on Arthur de Gobineau's racist theories. While racist ideologies underpinned the entire French colonial project, with the idea that France was superior to the populations it invaded and submitted to its rule, Gallieni's doctrine required to study local power dynamics and the cultural specificities of each ethnic group to France's advantage. He asked why Gallieni had so much presence in French public space, citing a métro station, and the avenue Gallieni in Paris, a prestigious street that connects the Seine to the Invalides building, deploring that it was dedicated to the colonial hero who designed "la politique des races". He deplored that not knowing this history was making it more difficult to combat racism in contemporary France. (From the video: "elle est consacrée au héros colonial concepteur de la politique des races. C'est à peine croyable, comment peut-on espérer lutter contre lutter contre le racisme en France quand personne ne connaît cette histoire ?") He then goes around the monument and describes its component, insisting on the allegories of the pedestal, point out that they are "clichés" linked to Gallieni's colonial career and that the Africa woman is bare-chested. He also points out that the monument was commissioned by the Ligue Maritime et Coloniale Française, reading the inscription on the plinth. "Ce sont ces quatre personnages qui représentent les peuples qui ont été colonisés par Gallieni et qui le portent. Franchement, c'est extrême. Franchement, je sais pas, en tant qu'afrodescendant, tu te balades dans la rue, et tu vois ce genre de monuments en l'honneur d'un héros colonial, ça fait mal en fait, c'est... franchement, je sais même pas quoi dire." He ends this video asking whether these public homages are still necessary, or if more context would be needed to fully understand the history alluded to by the monument, suggesting that it might be better to place it in a museum. Finally, he asked municipal and state power what the message was to the population, by keeping these colonial monuments without explanation, and urged for more education about history of French colonialism and slavery to combat racism today. "Est-ce que nous avons vraiment besoin de tous ces hommages coloniaux ? Ne seraient-ils pas mieux dans des musées qui pourraient clairement nous expliquer cette histoire ? Je m'adresse directement à la mairie du 7e arrondissement de Paris, au Ministère de la Culture, et à Emmanuel Macron, président de la République française. Je demande : quel est le message que vous voulez nous faire passer en conservant ces hommages coloniaux sans nous donner aucun contexte historique pour mieux les comprendre ? On veut des réponses. Je crois que continuer à creuser notre histoire coloniale c'est un bon moyen de lutter contre le racisme tel qu'il existe aujourd'hui dans notre pays la France. Un racisme directement lié à notre histoire coloniale et notre passé esclavagiste français." In the following days, comments and reposts on social media engage with the contents of the video about the monument, both critical of Gallieni, and critical of Histoires Crêpues.
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2020, Graffiti and paint thrown at the monument to Colbert in Paris On 23 June 2020, an activist from Guadeloupe, member of the Brigade Anti-Négrophobie (BAN), spray painted the words "Negrophobie d'Etat" in red, onto the plinth of Colbert's monument in front of Assemblée Nationale. He also threw red paint onto the statue's chest, and onto the document it is holding in its hands. The police, always in front of the AssembléeNationale, intervened immediately and arrested the activist on the spot. The State pressed charges for "dégradation de bien public". A video of the action and the activist's arrest was posted on BAN's Twitter account. The activist explained: “Vous voyez, les racistes sont de l’autre coté de l’Assemblée. Ça c’est une statue qui vient prôner la négrophobie, le meurtre des Noirs, le viol des Noirs, la torture des Noirs”.
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2021, Artistic performance by Deborah de Robertis on the monument to Gallieni in Paris On 26 September 2021, an artistic performance by Deborah de Robertis, feminist artist, takes place on the monument to Gallieni. Six naked Mariannes, only wearing an phrygian cap, climb on the monument an pour red paint from between their legs, symbolizing blood dropping down their genitals. On Twitter, the artist elaborated on her performance: « La statue a un sexe : c’est un sexe d’homme. Le colon est un homme, le tyran est un homme, le dictateur est un homme. Ce qu’ils ont en commun est une bite : la colonisation est un viol. Caméras au front, les corps - sortant de leur statut d’objet, deviennent sujets. Les femmes violent le Pouvoir, et non l’inverse. Les Mariannes nous regardent, en femmes fontaines, éjaculent à la face du colon, jouissant de violer le pouvoir. Le renversement par l'art opère à la suite de siècles de silence, il est le résultat d’une recherche et d’une pensée conceptuelle. Le renversement n’est pas un accident de l’Histoire mais un accouchement, dans la douleur et dans le sang." The city of Paris pressed charges for "dégradation de bien public"
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2021, Artistic prank by Ivan Argote on the monument to Gallieni in Paris On April 19 2021, visual artist Ivan Argote published a video of a small team of people lifting Gallieni's statue away from the monument with a crane (see references). The French newspaper Regards published it as the city of Paris removing the statue, but this was only an artistic performance enhanced with visual effects to imagine new potential futures for Paris and the monument. When Regards posted this on social media, panic ensued, and officials from the city of Paris rushed to the scene to see that the monument was intact; they posted a photo on their twitter accoun asking Regards to stop publishing fake news. This jumpstarted a debate on social media, almost a year after the wave of contestations against this monument.
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2021, Cleaning by Action Française of the monument to Gallieni in Paris On October 3, l’Action Française Paris, a monarchist and radical right-wing group, posts a video on Twitter showing their members cleaning the monument to Gallieni with brushes and water bottles. This method does not follow art conservator methods and recommendations, and are damaging to the monument. On Twitter, the video caption reads: "L’@actionfrancaise était une fois de plus présente pour préserver l’Héritage en nettoyant la statue du Maréchal Gallieni, souillée récemment. Face à la négation de notre patrimoine par quelques esprits confus en mal de reconnaissance : français, rejoins nos rangs !" In the video, activists explain: "En réaction face à la souillure de ce monument, érigé en l'honneur du Maréchal Gallieni, sauveur de Paris en 1914 face à l'avancée allemande, l'Action Française a pris les devants et, contrairement à la mairie, a nettoyé ce monument à la gloire de la France et de ses héritages." Radical right-wing activists thus position themselves as defendors of statues and monuments, while their defense methods are further damaging the monuments they claim to protect, and constitute a different type of "dégradation de bien public".
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2021, Sentencing for degradation of monument to Colbert in Paris The activist from Brigade Anti-Négrophobie was sentenced by the Paris court to a 500 EUR fine and to pay 1,040 EUR to the Assemblée Nationale cover the costs of cleaning the Colbert statue. The defense appealed the decision, and planned to press charges against the State for "apologie de crime contre l'humanité" for leaving Colbert's statue in front of the Assemblée Nationale
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2021, Trial for degradation of monument to Colbert in Paris The trial for the activist from Brigade Anti Négrophobie was reported several times, until May 10, 2021, which is also a commemorative date for the abolition of slavery in France. The State pressed charged for "inscription, signe ou dessin réalisés sur une façade, une voie publique ou du mobilier urbain". The defense's strategy seems to have been to engage with the ideological resoning behind the activist's action, trying to start a a debate over slavery and reparations. Meanwhile, the prosecution seemingly chose to remain focused on the practicalities of the infraction. The accused was quoted in an article published in right-wind newspaper Le Figaro : «Ils parlent de tag, de traces. Ils n’ont même pas abordé la question (de la négrophobie). C’est pour nous, un aveu.» «L’État français, toujours néocolonial, continue à assumer de manière officieuse la négrophobie d’État!» The defense lawyer was quoted in the same article: «L’État français veut à tout prix éviter de débattre de la question des réparations. Un geste symbolique a été posé, mais on fait semblant de ne pas comprendre le véritable sens de ce geste, c’est-à-dire mettre au jour les conséquences du code noir, ce que M. Lollia appelle la négrophobie d’État. La seule réponse à une demande de justice sociale, c’est le déni et la répression.» According to the newspaper Marianne, the prosecution asked for a 800 EUR fine.
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2023, Graffiti and cleaning of monument to Gallieni in Paris On March 21, COARC and the City of Paris commision art conservators Groupe Cherki to clean the plinth of the monument to Gallieni. Graffitis were spray painted on the plinth with anarchists slogans calling out the French government: this action took plce during months of protests against pension reform. One of the slogans calls out the monument itself, with warning triangles : « /!\ STATUE RACISTE ↑ » (source DACVP-COARC, Dossier Gallieni 2)
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2023, Graffiti on the statue of Thomas Jefferson The pedestal was spray painted in black with the words: "owned slaves / raped them / and refused / to claim his / black babies"
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Authorisation by the Paris City Council for the city's departments to work with the Maritime League In November 1921, the Paris City Council authorised the city's departments to work with the League to design the statue.
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Création d'un comité pour l'érection d'une statue à Galliéni En mai 1921, la Ligue maritime et coloniale crée un comité pour ériger une statue de Galliéni à Paris et ouvre une souscription.
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Planting of an oak tree to honour Galliéni In 1919, an oak tree was also planted in the Jardin du Luxembourg as a tribute to Galliéni.