On the margins, the sixth Ghetto Biennale

On the margins, the sixth Ghetto Biennale

by Camilla Boemio

https://www.exibart.com/opening/la-22ma-biennale-di-sydney-la-conclusa-sesta-gehtto-biennale-a-haiti/?fbclid=IwAR3E3hQbBuqJEDuOLKQLt7WOEz9hrb9P5nMn6xN3bt9cer-7BRSMq60LnZg

On the margins, the sixth Ghetto Biennale

The Haitian revolution, perhaps one of the most important and neglected revolutions, seems to have been written by western history gathering its great drifts and fragility. For many it has always been a historical resource that has shown how bottom-up change is possible.

There is no doubt that it is enveloped in a magical halo and an epiphanic seduction, in which still today you demonstrate how the possible is followed by the impossible, the victory by defeat, the good follows the evil and vice versa in an infinite whirlwind. Haiti is that exposed nerve and the defeat for a West too much taken by the lack of interest in the weak.

Plunging into a glorious past, and breathing in the “articulations” of a revolution taking place, the 6th Ghetto Biennale , took place in December, showing, among many uncertainties, how it was possible to cure a biennial, and a public program, in the real emergency and during a collapse of a nation.

A full bodied performance program, workshops and screenings flanked by the many site-specific installations created by Haitian artists, of which Jerry Reginald Chery aka Twoket, Wesner Bazile, Aurielien Moliere, Steevens Simeon, and internationally; such as Tom Bogaert, Lois Henderson, Laura Heyman, Alia Farid, Jean Louis Huhta, Fabien Clerc; the works created remotely by the Californian artist Ismael de Anda, in collaboration with Gina Cunningham and Jim Ricks, who reworked their photographic works by creating a quartet of digital collages entitled, Trance Portal Fierce Love Quartet, which portrays a sort of conceptual portal to transcend the distances between the hybrid cultures that feed between Haiti, Los Angeles, El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

The fire in the Grand Rue district
If it could have been a victory to have made this edition entitled ” The Haitian Revolution & Beyond” the last few days have decreed discomfort for the native community of Haiti linked to the Biennale; on the evening of Sunday 1st March a terrible fire devastated the Grand Rue district of Port-au-Prince , where the Biennial Ghetto is held and the studio of the Haitian artist Guyodo is located.  

A huge amount of works of art have been destroyed or lost, to which must be added the destruction of the small wood turning workshops in which the artists often carried out the works, in addition to the conflagration of the houses of an entire neighborhood. The inhabitants saw all sustenance lost. A petition organized by the Biennial Ghetto working group is raising funds to help. In a choral moment of upheaval I like to hope that art will once again start a new rebirth. If you would like further information on how you can help this Grand Rue community in Haiti you can visit this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/824528914734694/