For his first solo show in France, Theaster Gates will showcase a new project, pursuing the exploration of social histories of migration and interracial relations, which will be on view at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, from February 20, 2019, to May 12, 2019.
In a press statement, the gallery says: “He thus deals more exactly with questions of black subjugation and the resulting imperial sexual domination and racial mixing, while concentrating on an episode in American history.”
The title of the exhibition “Amalgam”, is the story of Malaga Island, a small isle in the state of Maine, in the USA. In 1912, the governor of the state of Maine had all of its inhabitants expelled. This poor population, made up of an interracial, mixed community of about 45 people, considered to be “indolent” by many of the local inhabitants, was forced to spread out through the region, some of them even being condemned to psychiatric institutions.