Forget everything you think you know about zombies...
Far from the contagious undead of cinema and pop culture, this exhibition takes you to Haiti, tracing the roots of a powerful and very real myth.

The word "zombi" (from nzambi), of African origin, originally referred to a spirit or the ghost of a dead person. But its meaning evolved dramatically as it crossed the Atlantic during the transatlantic slave trade, shaped by the fusion of African, Caribbean, and Catholic beliefs.

In Haiti, the figure of the zombi emerged on the fringes of Vodou culture, particularly through the practices of secret societies—most notably the Bizango society—whose judicial function is said to include the power of zombification. In this context, the zombi is not a supernatural creature, but a condemned criminal, deprived of liberty, enslaved, and kept in a state of stupefaction under the control of a master (bokor).

Blending knowledge and myth, the exhibition reveals the complex realities behind the fear of this iconic "undead" figure. It also traces how the myth was constructed in the Western imagination—from its first mention in 1697 by French writer Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, to its reinvention in George A. Romero’s legendary film Night of the Living Dead.