I am taking a blogging break this week and have asked friends to write guest posts for Eye Prefer Paris during my absence. Today, Jennifer Burdon, a terrific museum guide and art lover, has written an article about the DIVAS Exhibition at Institut du Monde Arabe.
The golden age of arab music and cinema (1930 -70) produced some spectacular women performers; they are celebrated in the current exhibition at the Arab Institute in Paris.
For anyone who doesn’t know this building, situated on the left bank, South East of Notre Dame cathedral, it is quite a striking sight. Designed by architect Jean Nouvel and opened in 1987, its President is ex-minister of Culture: Jack Lang. The outside façade reproduces an arab ‘moucharabiya’, a lattice-work partition from behind which women would traditionally observe the world.
The women featured in the “Divas” exhibition not only held centre stage, but astonished the world. They came from different backgrounds and origins: Christian, Jewish, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, but had one thing in common: star quality.
Of the most famous four, Oum Kalthoum is a legend. When she died in 1975, aged approximately 77, she was given a magnificent state funeral (visible on Youtube). Two million Egyptians turned out onto the streets of Cairo to say farewell to their favorite artiste. Her songs sometimes lasted over an hour, as she improvised, singing of love and pain and abandonment. Regularly, and for 27 years, starting in 1934, she gave concerts on Radio Cairo. Her 2 concerts in Paris, at the Olympia concert hall, in 1967, were the only ones she gave outside of the arab world.
Several of the dresses worn by the Divas are on display, along with their jewelry. Here is Oum Khaltoum with some of her accessories.
Warda El Djezairia (Rose of Algeria)
Warda (1939-2012) carried on Oum’s heritage, performing ten years later at the Olympia concert hall in Paris. She was presented to the public by Charles Aznavour.
Warda was born in Paris, of an Algerian father and Lebanese mother. She started singing aged nine in the family cabaret: the TAM TAM (which stood for Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco).
In 1956 her family was forced into exile in Beirut when the cabaret was suspected of harbouring weapons for the FLN (Algerian National Liberation Front). On Algeria’s independence in 1962, she came back there, then married a man who demanded that she give up her career. Later, having divorced him, Warda returned to the stage by special request to perform for Algerian President Boumedienne at the celebrations at the ten year anniversary of Algeria’s independence. Her career was relaunched in Egypt where she married Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi. Warda represented the unity of the arab world, continuing the heritage of Oum Kalthoum, but incorporating sounds from the Mahgreb.
The third very famous singer, born in 1935 in Beirut, is Fayrouz. Her name means Turquoise. She was given it by the director of Radio Lebanon in 1947. Fayrouz has sung everything, from Lebanese folk songs to Western rhythms and operettas. She has become a living icon, proclaiming tolerance and love through her songs, often tragic, after the nightmare of civil war in Lebanon.
Dalida (original name Yolanda Gigliotti), born in Egypt of an Italian family was elected ‘Miss Egypt’ in 1954, wearing an ocelot bikini! She enjoyed huge success as a singer in Europe, especially in France and Italy, despite a tragic life which ended in suicide.
The highpoint of her film career was in the role of Saddika, laundress, in Youssef Chahine’s film ‘ The Sixth Day’ (1986). Dalida’s grave, in Montmartre cemetery, is one of the most visited; its powerful statue reflects her glamorous career.
Many other amazing women are represented in the exhibition. The liberty and fame they achieved seems incredible nowadays. Their beauty and their voices have become legends.
Asmahan (meaning ‘sublime’), was a great beauty and film star, married a Syrian prince, entranced audiences with her melancholy songs, led a turbulent life, and died in mysterious circumstances in a car crash, possibly involved in espionnage, at 31 years of age.
Faten Hamama (1931-2015) was an icon of Egyptian cinema for 50 years. Starring with Omar Sharif in ‘Sky of Hell’ in 1954, they became a legendary pair of lovers.
Tahiyya Carioca (1919-1999) ran away from home at twelve years old and made a career as an oriental dancer, sensual and slow. Her temperament however was volcanic. Her marriages numbered fourteen! In 1953 she was imprisoned for 3 months, for her Communist activities. In her career, she made over 120 films, often playing a seductress.
Such women became icons and also symbols of emancipation.
Civil wars, petrol crises and the death of Egyptian President Nasser in 1970 brought to an end the golden era.
The exhibition takes us through these heady years, allowing us to hear the voices and see several film clips of the great Divas.
Contemporary art looks back to these women, as it seeks to redefine the place of women in society.
An art installation, specially created by Lamia Ziadé for the show, is a transposition of her novel “Oh Night, Oh My Eyes”. It transports us into the fantasy world of these performers, as if we were entering into one of their dressing rooms.
The exhibition runs until the 26th of September.
Open Tuesday to Friday 1pm to 6pm.
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10am to 7pm
https://www.imarabe.org/en/expositions/divas-arabes
