American by birth and a French citizen by choice, Josephine Baker soared to stardom in 1920s Paris, traveling at what seemed the speed of light. In 1927, when she starred in the silent film Siren of the Tropics, she became the first Black woman to claim a major role in a motion picture. As a singer, dancer, and personality, Baker garnered plenty of glowing nicknames—the “Bronze Venus,” the “Creole Goddess,” the “Black Pearl”—but her beauty went deeper. During W.W. II, she was a member of the French Resistance. In the 1950s, she began campaigning for civil rights. Baker died in 1975, at 68, and her status as an icon has held strong. Today she is a darling of academics, the subject of symposiums on race, gender, and performance. This exhibition in Berlin focuses on the cinematic Baker, exploring her distinctive career through an audio-visual essay titled Icon in Motion. —Elena Clavarino