Political Hugo

Exhibition dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi

March 14 - August 25 2013

Exhibition

Was Victor Hugo more of a poet, playwright and novelist, or rather a French citizen, representing the people, an outcast, deputy and senator?

 

Although Victor Hugo never was a man of authority, he exerted a real ‘political’ influence from 1852 to his death. The exhibiton will present work and documents drawn almost exclusively from the collection of Victor Hugo's House. It will trace the chronological path of the man who was a royalist under the Restoration, close to power under the July monarchy, a moderate republican in 1848, a progressive in 1851, a fierce opponent of the 1851 coup d’état, an outcast, an unyielding exile during the Second Empire, a major moral figure during the 1870 siege of Paris, a deputy of the extreme left in 1871 – opposed to the violence of the Commune but even more opposed to the bloody repression from Versailles – and a radical senator, finally, in 1876. This path will be punctuated by four causes upheld by Hugo throughout his life : the battle against the death penalty and for the proportionality of punishment, the fight against poverty, the campaign for secularism and free education, and finally advocacy of a moral balance between “right and law”. Many of Hugo’s thoughts and positions on each of these four issues are still very relevant today, which undoubtedly explains the place he still holds in contemporary political discourse. 

Commissioners:
Martine Contensou, project manager at Victor Hugo's House
Vincent Gille, director of documentary studies at Victor Hugo's House

Extra muros exhibition:

Maisons de Victor Hugo

Press area