Magnet Over the Rainbow | Jean Cocteau

Description

Comprising mainly works and documents from the collections of the Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Pompidou, the exhibition Over the Rainbow (2023) shows how, throughout the twentieth century and right up to the present day, artists have contributed to bringing minority sexualities out of invisibility, and have participated in the struggles led by LGBTQI+ communities for the recognition of their rights.

Jean Cocteau's Le Livre Blanc is a groundbreaking literary work that explores profound themes, including homosexuality. Published in 1928, the book is not explicitly about Cocteau's homosexuality, but reflects his experiences and sensibilities as a gay man living at a time when homosexuality was still stigmatized and repressed.

Le Livre Blanc is presented as a fictional autobiography, offering a symbolic and poetic vision of Cocteau's life and experience. In his reflections on art, love and the human condition, Cocteau subtly explores marginality and the internal struggles associated with his sexual orientation. He uses metaphorical images and allusions to express aspects of his homosexual identity, while preserving a certain ambiguity.

The importance of The White Book lies in the fact that it was one of the first major works by an established writer to address homosexuality in a veiled way. At the time, homosexuality was often repressed and considered immoral, and Cocteau helped to break the silence by expressing, in a cryptic but significant way, aspects of his sexual orientation.