‘We’re passing by’: A conversation with Haitian contemporary artist <PERSON> · Global Voices
Haitian artist <PERSON> at Alice Yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad, during her residency there, February 2022. Photo by Sforza Media, used with permission.
You could say that <PERSON> is a citizen of the world. Born in Haiti in 1974 to Swiss parents who ran an art gallery in Pétionville, her formative years were split between Switzerland, where she learned to draw, paint, etch and sculpt, and Haiti, where she absorbed the colours, culture, mysticism and magic of her island home. This unique combination would inform <PERSON>'s artistic perspective as she developed into one of Haiti's most well-known contemporary artists.
From mid-January 2022, as part of a multi-year regional exchange for women artists organised by Le Centre d’Art in collaboration with UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity, <PERSON> was the artist-in-residence at Alice Yard, a contemporary art collective based in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Hers is one of eight residencies in the exchange, at the end of which there will be an exhibition of works by all eight artists in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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With this in mind, <PERSON> spent a month continuing to develop a series of works on canvas dealing with birth, rebirth and women's histories within that context. I attended a viewing on February 10, and thereafter interviewed <PERSON> via Zoom, where we talked about connection, belonging, identity and womanhood, as well as the challenges and possibilities for Caribbean contemporary artists.
<PERSON> (JMF): Why was this residency an important one to you?
<PERSON> (PM): Within the Caribbean, we’re so close geographically but also so far away. The idea is to create that link that has been a bit forgotten. I think there are a lot of things that can be said about the proximity and cultures, the flux, the immigration, or the different histories, [but] at the end of the day, we don’t think Caribbean at all, so it's been lovely [being at Alice Yard].
Haitian artist <PERSON> at Alice Yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad, February 2022. Photo by Sforza Media, used with permission.
JMF: What are some of the challenges that Caribbean contemporary artists face in being able to show their work internationally?
PM: I did a piece I call “Homage to Christopher Cozier” [in which <PERSON> riffed off of the Trinidadian contemporary artist's “Turbulence” installation], because as Caribbean artists, when you have to travel to biennials [because shipping costs are so expensive] you have to be intelligent.
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And I think his “Turbulence” piece is just so clever, because wherever you go, you take those two things and you set the papers up and the papers are in a little envelope. 216
For me, it gives me a lot of ideas, being here, seeing how things are.
<PERSON>: What message do the parallels between our two countries’ cultures send to you? How does that connectivity help you as an artist?
PM: That we have common history. I’ve never shown with <PERSON>, but I do feel we are talking the same language, somehow. Caribbean contemporary artists are not always recognised. In Haiti, coming from a gallery, I know who I sold the art to and the most beautiful collections of Haitian art are actually not in Haiti — not because we wanted to sell to foreigners, but because those were the ones that related. In Haiti, [there was] no recognition in terms of the value of the art, so I think in the dialogues of our similarities, because of our common history, we can really engage in constructive thinking.
I’m working on an archive online with the Centre d’Art, like a Wikipedia of Haitian art, ready to upload videos, images, and begin to do a mapping of all the Haitian art collections in the US and in Europe. A lot of what is written about Haitian artists is often from elsewhere. The more I think about it, the more I think that this could be something for the whole Caribbean. Because of our huge diaspora, building in those spaces together can only make us stronger and make it possible for different styles to coexist. We have to also be writing our own narrative. I think there’s not enough writing and re-writing the way we see ourselves. 216