First Caribbean Contemporary Art Festival
March 1–4, 2018
United States
“Opening up to the Caribbean is opening up to the world” said Martinican philosopher, poet and author Edouard Glissant (1928-2011).
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, in close partnership with the France Florida Foundation for the Arts, are launching the first edition of the Tout-Monde Festival, first Caribbean Contemporary Arts Festival, which will take place in Miami from March 1 to March 4, 2018, at the beginning of Francophonie Month.
Under the patronage of Mrs. Christiane Taubira, Cultural Ambassador of the festival and former Minister of Justice of France, the Tout-Monde Festival will by launched on March 1st by Mrs. Bénédicte de Montlaur, Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the United States, to present contemporary artistic and academic productions from the Caribbean, spanning across all fields: visual and performing arts including music, dance, theatre, film and literature.
Reflecting upon the spirit and philosophy of the "Tout-Monde”—a concept introduced by Édouard Glissant which explores the relation between territories, cultures and individuals with multiples roots in one “whole world”—the festival will aspire to connect artists, academics and institutions in the United States and the wider Caribbean region, and to reflect upon the meaning of the “Tout-Monde” today.
Curated by two internationnally renowned French Caribbean curators, Johanna Auguiac and Claire Tancons, and directed by the Cultural Attaché of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the USA, Vanessa Selk, the first edition of the festival will center on the theme of Hétéronomonde, confronting ideas of heteronomy and autonomy within the Tout-Monde.
This launch edition will focus on 17 artists and authors from the French Antilles—Guadeloupe, French Guyana and Martinique—invited to present their performances, their artwork, but also their films or their published works, in dialogue with 7 other Caribbean artists and authors from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haïti, Puerto-Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
Among the events, is the exclusive duo performance between musician/saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart and choreographer/dancer Léna Blou during the opening ceremony at Pérez Art Museum Miami which will take place on Thursday, March 1st, 2018. On the following day, Shirley Bruno will present her film Tezen and Kenny Dunkan will present a performance and a unique installation of his work within the permanent collection of The Wolfsonian Museum–FIU. On Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Jacques Martial will, for the first time in Miami, perform his play on Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of return to my native land. On the same day, artist Jean-François Boclé, in residency at Fountainhead, will propose a performance echoing the Caribbean market of the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, followed by Le cri de mes racines, a duo dance performance and visual poem dedicated to Haïti by Josiane Antourel and Yna Boulangé. On Sunday March 4, a collective exhibition of contemporary art and photography will offer a larger picture of this Hétéronomonde, featuring artists Loriel Beltran, Robert Charlotte, Julien Creuzet, Adler Guerrier, Mirtho Linguet, Shirley Rufin, Kelly Sinnapah Mary and Jillian Mayer.
The academic and educational approach of the festival, confronting philosophical concepts with art and literature, represents a key aspect of the event. This facet of the program will be explored in several academic panels with renowned authors and professors such as Edwidge Danticat, Patrick Chamoiseau and Michael Dash during the inaugural conference on Glissant’s “Tout-Monde” at PAMM, and Yarimar Bonilla in conversation with the curators at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex. In addition, a specific Tout-Monde Teens program with interactive workshops and performances is offered to the younger public and to students, with artists Guillaume Lorin, Ronald Cyrille and Black Kalagan.
A private Closing Ceremony will take place in the presence of Mrs. Christiane Taubira, Mr. Clément Leclerc, Consul general of France in Miami, and Mrs. Sylvie Glissant, director of the Tout-Monde Institut in Paris and Edouard Glissant’s widow. During the ceremony, an international jury chaired by American-Haitian artist Édouard Duval-Carrié, and composed of Anthony Bogues (Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University), Marianne Ramirez Aponte (Director of the Museum of Contemporary art of Puerto-Rico), and Pablo Léon de la Barra (Curator at Large, Latin America, Salomon Guggenheim Museum, New York and member of Davidoff Art Initiative’s council), will reward one artist with the Tout-Monde Award, which offers an art residency program for one month at the Fountainhead Residency in Miami.
