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Since 1998, the cultural players in the Caribbean have been working together to
widen the influence of the region’s contemporary visual artists. This special issue
of
Art Absolument
is one of the steps in that process but it reveals only a very
small part of the artistic creation that is now proliferating in the Caribbean.
1. “Creolization is the mixing of arts and languages to produce the unexpected. It is a way of
continually transforming without losing oneself in the process. It is a space in which being
dispersed allows people to come together, in which culture shocks, disharmony, disorder and
interference become creative driving forces. It is the creation of an open, inextricable culture
that is shaking up the uniformity imposed by the major media and artistic centers. It is taking
place in every field, in music, the plastic arts, literature, cinema and cuisine at a dizzying pace.”
Édouard Glissant –
Le Monde,
February 3, 2011.
2. The Caribbean Commission, set up in 1946, was the first instrument for international coopera-
tion aimed at economic development. It was to become the Caribbean Organization in 1961 but
was dissolved in 1965.
3. Carifta, founded in 1968, introduced measures governing commercial labeling among the
member states and set up the Caribbean Development Bank.
4. Caricom was set up in 1973 to promote the cooperation process.
Finally, since 1981, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has been seeking to
boost the development of the poorest islands.
5. The Departmentalization Law adopted in 1946 transformed the former French colonies of
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion Island and Guyana into French Overseas Departments.
Concernant l’art contemporain, le rayonnement de
la Caraïbe hors de ses frontières s’est construit à
travers une dizaine d’expositions internationales :
trois participations aux biennales de São Paulo en
1994, 1996 et 1998,
Caribbean Visions: contemporary
paintings & sculptures
au Center of Fine Arts de Miami
en 1995,
Caribe insular : exclusiõn, fragmentacíon y
paraíso
au Museo extremeño e iberoamericano à
Badajoz et Madrid en 1998,
Infinite island: contempo-
rary caribbean art
au Brooklyn Museum de New York
en 2008,
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black
Atlantic
à la Tate, à Liverpool en 2010.
En France, il a fallu attendre 2009 et
Kreyol Factory
à La Villette pour qu’une manifestation d’envergure
soit consacrée à l’art actuel de la Caraïbe. Et en 2012,
est attendu le grand projet
Caribbean: Crossroads of
the world
, conçu par trois musées de New York, le
Museo del Barrio, le Queens Museum et le Studio
Museum de Harlem.
L’analyse de la liste des plasticiens sélectionnés
pour ces manifestations laisse apparaître la réfé-
rence particulière à neuf artistes : Christopher
Cozier (Trinidad), Annalee Davis (Barbade), Ernest
Breleur (Martinique), Alex Burke (Martinique), Jorge
Pineda (République dominicaine), Mario Benjamin
(Haïti), Joscelyn Gardner (Barbade), Jennifer Allora
et Guillermo Calzadilla (Porto Rico). Ces artistes
de la Caraïbe déjà bien établis ne sont pourtant pas
répertoriés par les sites d’information sur la cote des
artistes. Lorsqu’ils le sont comme Burke, Pineda,
Allora et Calzadilla, on dénombre de une à trois
adjudications, alors que si l’on compare au hasard
d’autres artistes comme Bruno Peinado, celui-ci en
Ernest Breleur.
Le Cambodge sous Pol Pot
.
2008, radiographies, agrafes, petits bouts d’œuvres d’artistes
contemporains ; Led 200 x 200 x 250 cm.