In today's L'esprit critique, the focus is on three exhibitions in Paris: one dedicated to the African-American artist Kerry James Marshall at the Musée d'Art Moderne (MAM); a major showcase of the work of Eva Gonzalès at the Petit Palais; and an exhibition at the Cité de l'architecture titled Patrimoines en résistance. De Tombouctou à Odessa. The Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris is hosting a major retrospective titled The Histories, dedicated to the African-American painter Kerry James Marshall, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 and now lives in Chicago. The exhibition, which was first presented in 2025 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, is curated by Mark Godfrey. Kerry James Marshall. The Histories has just opened at the Musée d'Art Moderne and will be on display until January 24, 2027. Eva Gonzalès, born in 1847 in Paris and who died in the same city in 1883 at the age of 36, is the subject of an unprecedented monographic exhibition at the Petit Palais. Conceived in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the exhibition is the first major one in France and worldwide since the one organized by her family two years after her death. The exhibition, titled Eva Gonzalès. Parcours d'une artiste libre, opened at the Petit Palais in mid-September and will be on view until the end of January. The general curation is by Annick Lemoine, president of the public establishment of the Musées d'Orsay and de l'Orangerie, with Stéphanie Cantarutti and Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho serving as chief curators at the Petit Palais and the Van Gogh Museum, respectively. Patrimoines en résistance. De Tombouctou à Odessa is the title of an exhibition that opened last spring and will remain visible until the beginning of next year at the Cité de l'architecture in Paris. The exhibition reflects on the damage caused to heritage during 21st-century wars and conflicts, often intentionally. It explores not only monumental and material heritage but also cultural and intangible aspects. The exhibition is divided into three sections: erase, resist, and repair. It combines works by contemporary artists, cartographic elements, video interviews with people involved in heritage preservation, and focuses on martyr sites from Armenia to Gaza, including Ukraine. It also includes films that create "digital doubles" of damaged sites using 3D technology to preserve their memory. The curation is by academics Élisabeth Essaïan and Mathilde Leloup, with assistance from Yves Uberlmann, an architect specialized in 3D digital surveying. The exhibition features contributions from Guslagie Malanda, an actress and independent exhibition curator; Margot Nguyen, an independent art worker; and Magali Lesauvage, a journalist and art critic. Visitors are greeted by two monumental works. The first is a frieze in the corridor leading to the exhibition rooms, titled Panoramique de la falaise, created by the French artist Pascal Convert. It depicts the holes left by the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban in 2001. Upon entering the exhibition, an entire wall is occupied by a series of photos of key rings titled Au cas où, created in 2004 by the Gazan artist Taysir Batniji. These keys belong to Palestinian homes in northern Gaza, from which residents had to flee to the center and south of the enclave since October 2023. The keys symbolize their hope of returning home one day.