Événements

A tribute exhibition to the first black artist on French stage: famous Rafael Clown Chocolat, Cuban slave (Havana 1868 – Bordeaux 1917) who found liberty in the docks of Bilbao working as a miner until 1880.

The second individual exhibition of the works by Senegalese artist Cheikhou Ba, held in Kalao in memory of Rafael Chocolat, one of the leading circus artists in Paris in the late 19th and early 20th century. After being bought in Havana by a Portugese merchant, eight-year old Rafael arrived in Bizcay to work on a farm. At the age of twelve he fled the farm and arrived at Bilbao´s docks where he lived poorly working as a miner until about 1885 when he bumped into Tony Grice, an English clown, who was performing in the city at the time. He offered Rafael assistant job, and after the debut in our city, they set off together to London around 1885. The year after they got to Paris where, after being hired by Le Nouveau-Cirque, they split up; Rafael achieved his first big role in ¨La Noce de Chocolat¨. Not long after he met another English clown Fottit, with whom he formed the most famous comic duet in the Belle Epoque, an authoritarian white clown and foolish black clown who receives punches. Their success lasted for 20 years until 1910 when, after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the show was cancelled and Rafael fell into oblivion. He died in 1917 in Bordeaux. He was buried in a pauper´s grave (street M, line 22, nº 2) together with his memory.*