iPalais de Tokyo16e arrondissement
Photoromance
The first major French solo show of Ivorian photographer Paul Kodjo, co-produced with Les Rencontres d'Arles: his 1970s photo-novels and documentary images of Abidjan.
More in Paris
In one photo-novel still, three people sit on a striped sofa in front of sheer curtains. The woman in the middle presses a handkerchief to her face while the man beside her keeps his dark glasses on. That's Perdue et retrouvée (1973), one of the romantic comedies Paul Kodjo shot for the weekly Ivoire Dimanche from 1971.
Kodjo (1939 to 2021) trained in Paris, went home to Abidjan in 1970 and founded the agency MAMEDIS. The show pairs the photo-novel pictures with a mostly unpublished body of work on Abidjan's nights out and its fashion during the boom years called the "Ivorian miracle". You go from staged love triangles in living rooms to the city's real parties.
It came from Les Rencontres d'Arles, and no review of the Paris run has appeared yet. Arts in the City says Kodjo drew "the sentimental education of a whole country" from the genre. Tickets are €13, €9 reduced, free under 18. Closed Tuesdays, open until midnight on Thursdays.
Look for
Perdue et retrouvée (1973)
Look for the sofa scene: a woman in a patterned dress holds a handkerchief to her face, flanked by a second woman and a man in a pale jacket and dark glasses.
Notre enfant a sauvé notre amour (1971)
A grinning man in a pale suit and checked tie stands between two friends, hands clasped, under a glowing ring of light.
Deux femmes, un homme (1971)
A woman in a lace top and hoop earrings sits in an armchair, eyes lowered, one hand raised mid-sentence.
Abidjan, 1970s
Shot from below, a woman in shorts and lace-up sandals stands cross-legged on a ledge in front of a gridded tower block.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
With kids
Under-18s get in free.
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Image credits
9
- Photoromance© Paul Kodjo / Les Rencontres du Sud / in camera galerie
- Florian Krewer: woven thinCourtesy of Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (MAM)
- Kerry James Marshall: The HistoriesCourtesy of Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (MAM)
- Simone Fattal: Des villes au fond d'un lacPhoto : François Doury © Adagp, Paris, 2026
- Palais de TokyoGuilhem Vellut via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (MAM)Lustucrucaca / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Palais Galliera - Musée de la Mode de ParisJoe deSousa / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Musée national des arts asiatiques - GuimetLionel Allorge / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Musée du quai Branly - Jacques ChiracJean-Pierre Dalbera, CC BY 2.0