Entrée to Black Paris Blog

Thursday, August 28th, 2025

WAX! at the Musée de l'Homme

Cover image: View of exhibition entrance from 2nd floor
© Entrée to Black Paris

For years, I have talked about the history and popularity of wax fabrics in Africa during the Entrée to Black Paris Spirit of Africa walking tour.

So, I was thrilled when I learned that the Musée de l'Homme was hosting an exhibition that delved deeply into this topic.

I spent several hours at the exhibition last weekend, and I was not disappointed.

The museum has devoted considerable space on two floors to this show.

First floor exhibition entrance and second floor display
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Once you arrive at the first floor, you will find the entrance to the exhibition at the far end of an enormous room with wall panels that recount the history of the Musée de l'Homme.

Visitor at WAX!
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The first level of the exhibition deals with the contemporary use of wax fabrics. You will find fashion designs, paintings, photographs, and art installations here.

Immediately upon entering, you will encounter a video of several fashion designers and visual artists responding to multiple questions about what the fabric means to them personally, how it figures into their work, and whether they consider the cloth "African."

Thandiwe Muriu talks about wax fabric
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One of the interviewees was Gombo, a French man of Angolan/Congolese descent. Several of his works are shown on both floors of the exhibition.

I was happy to recognize one of Lamine M's designs from an exhibition that featured his work at the Saint Denis Basilica almost ten years ago.

Marguerite d'Artois (2015) by Lamine M
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Marguerite d'Artois information panel
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Lamine also contributed Série Ventilate, an installation composed of fan blades covered in wax fabric, to the show. You will find it in the section devoted to evaluating the effect that producing wax fabric has on the environment.

Série Ventilate (2015) by Lamine M
© Entrée to Black Paris

Black & white images by the iconic West African photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta illustrate the popularity of wax fabric once it became affordable by the general population.

Untitled (The Seamstress) by Seydou Keïta
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An installation at the far end of the first floor exhibition space represents the strips of fabric parents used to tie to their children's wrists while fleeing armed conflict as well as the cloth used to bundle and transport belongings during migrations.

La Toile by Sinzo Aanza (2021)
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If you decided to use the stairs to get to the second level of the exhibition, you'll notice a vibrant stripe at the edge of the staircase that points you in the right direction.

Stairs to upper level of the exhibition
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Stripe indicating the direction of the exhibition
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Entrance to Level 2 of the exhibition
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This part of the exhibition presents the colonial history of wax fabric, information about several traditional African fabrics (including bogolan [mud cloth] and kente cloth), and numerous motifs that turn garments made from wax cloth into implements for storytelling.

There is also information about the trade laws and tariffs that upended production of wax cloth in Africa and allowed inexpensive fabrics produced in China and India to flood the market as well as the different grades of fabric available for purchase today.

Panels from Wax Paradoxe, a graphic novel by Belgian journalist Justine Sow, presents the story of Vlisco, the Dutch firm that is currently the world's largest producer of wax fabrics.

The exhibition ends with a display of garments that are worn in recognition of special occasions - marriages, childbirth, deaths, and political events.

WAX! will be on display through September 7, 2025.

Musée de l'Homme
17 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre
75116 Paris
Metro: Trocadéro (Lines 6 and 9)
Full price entry is 15€; entry is free for those up to 26 years old.