After spending her childhood in Algeria and studying in France, Zoulikha Bouabdellah burst onto the art scene in 2005 with the landmark Africa Remix exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Her breakthrough video, Dansons, features the artist performing a belly dance to the tune of La Marseillaise—a piece that set the tone for an oeuvre spanning video, installation, drawing, and painting, exhibited in museums worldwide. Her work consistently questions established perspectives, gender norms, and systems of representation. For Vénus Noire, Zoulikha Bouabdellah found inspiration at the legendary Banana Café, a historic venue in Les Halles whose name and emblem pay direct and unabashed homage to Joséphine Baker, the undisputed queen of Parisian nightlife. Baker even had her own cabaret on Rue Fontaine (Paris 9th), where crowds gathered to dance. And dancing, perhaps, is the best way to reconnect with the benevolent queer icon she was. With this in mind, Zoulikha Bouabdellah invited a go-go dancer to wear Baker’s iconic banana belt and filmed the performance inside the Parisian café. Framed by the words LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ in a striking installation, this video playfully and seductively reinterprets the familiar image of Joséphine Baker while also honoring the fearless woman who fought for France—as a Resistance fighter, a spy, and later, a passionate Gaullist. These two sides of her identity are not contradictory but rather complementary, within a Republic that embraces all its children, regardless of gender, color, or identity.