Malick Sidibé (Malian, 1936-2016)
Nuit de Noel (Happy Club), 1963; printed 2008
Gelatin silver print, printed 2008
Purchase, Advisory Council for Photography
2011.21.3
Nuit de Noel is a radical display of irreverent joy created by Malick Sidibé in 1963, following the commercial introduction of medium-format flash cameras, popular for their accessibility and portability. This leap in the medium’s physical accessibility coincided with new post-colonial possibilities of self-representation in many places. Sidibé and his assistants, under the moniker Studio Malick, brought together strides toward the democratization of photography and decolonization by producing a photograph that champions happiness, celebration, and rebellion against the political backdrop of the newly independent African state of Mali.
At the time this photograph was made, Mali had been independent from French colonial rule for three years. Following sixty-some years of French imperialism, Mali was plagued by a political vacuum. The repressive rule of President Modibo Keita (1960-68) exacerbated the ongoing effects of French colonial systems and internalized hierarchies even after official imperialism ended. Powered by rebellious optimism and dreams of true freedom, Malian youths defied Keita’s curfews as they danced and discoursed in the capital of Bamako.
Sidibé distills this joyful, revolutionary fervor into Nuit de Noel. A couple euphorically dances in an intimate and informal setting, donning Western clothing and listening to rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues music. The photograph demonstrates the power of jubilation as a tool of resistance. Nuit de Noel and its young protagonists actively rebel against the complex legacies of colonial oppression and its aftermath through an unbridled display of joy.
Andrew Handrea, Loeb Curatorial Research Intern, Summer 2020
Further Reading:
- A. Chab Toure and Caroline Hancock, “Midnight in Bamako,” Aperture, Fall 2016, No. 224, Sounds (Fall 2016), 84-93.
- Sara Blair, “About Time: Historical Reading, Historicity, and the Photograph,” PMLA, Jan., 2010, Vol. 125, No. 1 (Jan., 2010), 161-171.
- In the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/10485
