Salon de Mai 2025: Art as Legacy, Memory, and Resistance

Art & Society

By Nandini Bhautoo

The 2025 edition of the Salon de Mai opened its doors on Friday, 30th May at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute’s School of Fine Arts in Moka, once again reaffirming its place as a cornerstone of the Mauritian cultural calendar. This annual exhibition, now more than four decades old, stands not just as a showcase of aesthetic expression, but as a testament to the enduring power of art in shaping national identity and collective memory.

The spirit of creative freedom permeates this year’s Salon de Mai, even as it engages with the theme of legacy – inviting critical reflection on the gains of past struggles and the responsibilities they bestow upon present generations. Notable pieces include Neermala Luckeenarain’s carton dress/uniform, a reinvention of the school uniform; Mala Chummun’s artwork ‘Suffocation,’ which grips viewers with its contradictory messages, speaking of the hypocrisy of the paradise island that suffocates its citizens through a different type of legacy: corruption, incompetence, and nepotism; and Sabeer Bahadoor’s huge sculpture of a half-horse, half-sportsman, poised in its run, which seeks to denounce the mad race that education has become

Founded by Moorthy Nagalingum, one of the school’s pioneering figures, the Salon de Mai was born of a visionary impulse: to create a platform for local artists — both emerging and established — to express, challenge, and reimagine Mauritian realities. Since its humble beginnings in a small hall reserved for elite names, the exhibition has grown into a dynamic space where multiple generations of artists confront the present and reclaim the past through diverse media including printmaking, mixed media collage, sculpture, and digital art.

This year’s edition is particularly resonant. Initially themed May 1975, it was eventually re-titled Legacy, but many artists continued working under the original impulse. Their artworks tap into the fiery spirit of the student-led protests of May 1975, a watershed moment in Mauritius’s post-independence history. These demonstrations — sparked by youth dissatisfaction with unemployment, elitist education systems, and press censorship — culminated in demands for free secondary education, electoral reforms, and participatory democracy. The result was a transformation of the educational and political landscape, including the introduction of free secondary education in 1976, the lowering of the voting age to 18, and the end of the state of emergency.

The Salon’s reinterpretation of this pivotal era invites viewers to reflect on how far the nation has come, and how much further it might go. Through symbolic collage, evocative installations, and socially engaged visual commentary, this year’s artworks bridge generations. Some pieces nostalgically revisit the revolutionary fervour of the 1970s, while others interrogate what has been gained — or lost — in the decades since.

Over the decades, the Salon has evolved into an inclusive platform open to emerging talents alongside canonical names. This diversification has ensured that the Salon remains not just a visual spectacle, but a participatory forum for cultural dialogue and innovation.

Over the decades, the Salon de Mai has regularly featured the work of many artistic stalwarts like Nalini Treebohun, Feroz and Ismet Ganty, Krishna Luchoomun, Nirmal Hurry, Neermala Luckeenarain, Mala Chummun, Yves David, and Pierre Argo. It has also consistently expanded its scope, incorporating printmaking workshops, artist meet-ups, and critical roundtables to address the ever-shifting challenges facing contemporary visual arts in Mauritius.

Despite the organizing title — which could have acted as a dampener, especially after the protests following the change of theme mentioned above — one can still feel the whisper of passionate inspiration as you walk through the brightly lit gallery, taking in the explosion of visual sensory messages that speak to the mind and heart through beauty, craft, and talent. We have to mention some amazing sculptures that are breathtaking in their scope — one of a carton sculpture of a little boy sitting cross-legged, reading, surrounded by school textbooks. The acknowledgement of the role of free education in the wake of the May 1975 protests is a key feature here. But on the other side of the gallery, a huge sculpture of a half-horse, half-sportsman greets you, poised in its run. The intention is to denounce the mad race that education has become. The precision of the craft and the socio-political message notwithstanding, this sculpture brings to mind the archetypal Indian myth of Hayavadana, the half-man, half-horse figure made famous by Girish Karnad’s eponymous play.

Another notable piece is the carton dress/uniform by Neermala Luckeenarain — a reinvention of the school uniform. Also on display is the artwork Suffocation by Mala Chummun, which grips you with its contradictory messages, speaking of the hypocrisy of the paradise island that suffocates its citizens through a different type of legacy: corruption, incompetence, and nepotism.

The spirit of creative freedom permeates this year’s exhibition, even as it engages with the theme of legacy — inviting critical reflection on the gains of past struggles, and the responsibilities they bestow upon present generations.

In a world where artistic expression often competes with the prosaic demands of the everyday, the Salon de Mai stands as an enduring reminder that art, in its quiet resilience, still possesses the power to provoke, to inspire, and to heal. Its continued relevance after more than four decades is not just a celebration of Mauritian creativity, but a call to preserve and expand the spaces in which that creativity can flourish.

As Mauritius continues to grapple with questions of identity, history, and direction, the Salon de Mai 2025 reminds us that art is not merely a mirror of society — it is a tool to remake it.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 6 June 2025