France, Feb. 10 -- Slavery has been a prominent theme in contemporary US and British art for many years, but French institutions have been slower to foreground the issue. Now the Pantheon monument in Paris has givencarte blanche to artist Raphael Barontini to bring lesser-known figures of emancipation into the light.
Freedom fighters have been at the core of Raphael Barontini's work for many years. But to have his pieces displayed in the Pantheon, a hallowed space reserved for France's national heroes,is deeply meaningful.
Barontini is acutely aware that his exhibition "We Could be Heroes" is not only an opportunity to pay tribute to lesser-known figures involved in the fight against slavery, but also a historic step forward in terms of p...