On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Colette, The Jan Michalski Foundation presents an exhibition bringing together nearly 250 documents, Rarely or never shown to the public. Exhibition from January 14 to April 2, 2023

Novelist, mime, actress, journalist, scriptwriter, advertising, On the occasion merchant of beauty products, Colette (Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, 1873 - Paris, 1954) foil the rankings. Born in a family without fortune, entry into literature without having wanted it, Colette made change a rule of life, Almost a moral. Its unconditional freedom, His innovative way of approaching writing, to impose unpublished themes, to make full -fledged subjects, acting and wishing, to reconcile literature with nature, have inspired generations of readers and readers, And make her a contemporary icon.

But how do you become Colette? Ask this question, It is to return to the sources of a vocation which refused to say its name, evoke family obstacles, social and personal that had to be overcome, and all the conquests that Colette knew how to make, pioneer, in half a century of creation. Because the writing was for her the place and the instrument of her emancipation, A way to explore possible, to free yourself from literary and sexual genres, And to invent a "new alphabet".

From the Claudine series to the Blue Fanal, Colette re -enchanted literature by creating new forms, by imagining new heroines who face solitude with the same courage, exclusion, difference or age, by questioning the stereotypes imposed by the company of its time, by exploring reality in its most banal and material dimensions, Naked and hoisting in light what the human eye did not before it touched.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Colette, The Jan Michalski Foundation presents an exhibition bringing together nearly 250 documents - original editions, photographs, letters, manuscript, objects -, Rarely or never shown to the public. An original course which testifies to a thousand hatching of a writer at work, aware of his talent and his notoriety, imposing on the strength of his pen a name that has become an emblem.

Guest Commissioner:

Frédéric Maget