SECOND EDITION OF THE TOUT-MONDE FESTIVAL THIS MARCH IN MIAMI EXTENDS TO NEW CULTURAL PARTNERS AND CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES INAUGURATED BY BERNICE STEINBAUM
“Opening up to the Caribbean is opening up to the world” said Martinican philosopher, poet and author Edouard Glissant (1928-2011) who invented the concept of the “Tout-Monde”, calling cultures and individuals with different roots to unite in one unique “Whole-World”.
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, in close partnership with the France Florida Foundation for the Arts and French Arts Associates, are presenting the second edition of the Tout-Monde Festival, the Caribbean Contemporary Arts Festival in Miami, which will take place from March 13th to March 17th, 2019, during Francophonie Month, and will focus this year on the theme “Echo-Natures”. This second edition will be inaugurated by the famous art collector and gallerist Bernice Steinbaum, “Survivor of the Art world” who has been promoting the work of minority artists and artists of color who were under-evaluated in the art world.
Under the high patronage of former French Minister of Justice and Cultural Ambassador of the Festival Mrs. Christiane Taubira, the Tout-Monde Festival will present this year over 25 contemporary works from the wider Caribbean region and diaspora, spanning a vast range of fields: visual and performing arts including music, dance, theater, as well as film and academic scholarship.
Conferences with Fanny Glissant are scheduled as official pre-launch events during Black History Month outside of Miami, at the Florida State University in Tallahassee and at the Florida University in Gainesville. During the Festival, artists like Pepe Mar, Raymond Médélice and Minia Biabiany, among others, will present suprising work at the exhibition “Echo-Natures: Cannibale Desire” curated by Jean-Marc Hunt and Marie Vickles. Breathtaking live performances such as the collective public performance Yué#Sorority at the Perez Art Museum Miami, the street procession Raranaval curated by Giscard Bouchotte (curator of the Haitian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale) in the Design District, the theatre play Hurricanes at the Koubek Center, and the evolutionist Breakdance show Biosphere in the Little Haiti Cultural Complex will premiere in the U.S.
“The Tout-Monde Festival was created to shed light on the dynamic art scene in the Caribbean and to build stronger ties in the region,” says Bénédicte de Montlaur, the Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the U.S. “This year, the Festival extends its scope to new cultural partners and Caribbean neighbors. Partnering with places like the Koubek Center in Little Havana, or cultural institutions from other countries such as the Cultural Center Eduardo Leon Jimenes in the Dominican Republic, the regional Caribbean platform Tilting Axis based in the Bahamas, or Fokal in Haiti, are key steps towards strengthening the Caribbean art scene.”
In addition to the renewed participation of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the Wolfsonian-FIU and the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, the Koubek Center in Little Havana, the Institute of Contemporary Art in the Design District and the Museum of Art and Design downtown have also joined the program. In total, a full program of five days will be presented in six emblematic cultural venues, representing each a different cultural heritage and community.
The second edition of the festival will center on the theme “Echo-Natures” which aims at deconstructing stereotypes of the Caribbean by exploring the deep characteristics and the essence of the Caribbean through different beings, aspects, shapes and environments. Participants are invited to reflect on how artistic productions enable us to analyze these Caribbean Natures encountered in insular, continental and diasporic contexts, and how these natures resonate one with each other, and with the rest of the world, in reference to the “Echo-World” of Edouard Glissant.
The program of the second edition, coordinated by the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy, Vanessa Selk, is proposed by a curatorial team composed of two guest curators, Jean-Marc Hunt (Guadeloupe) for visual arts and Giscard Bouchotte (Haiti) for performing arts, as well as associate curators from Miami-based institutions: Marie Vickles (Little Haiti Cultural Center), Jonathan Ali (Third Horizon), Gean Moreno, Stephanie Seidel and Lisa Fernandez (ICA), Jon Mogul, Yucef Merhi and Elizabeth Welch (The Wolfsonia-FIU).
This edition will focus on more than 30 artists from the Caribbean:
French Caribbean guest artists include: Guadeloupe: Nathalie Lezin, Guy Gabon, Atadja Lewa, Minia Biabany, Myriam Soulanges - Martinique : Henri Tauliaut, Gwladys Gambie, Ricardo Ozier-Lafontaine, Maher Beauroy, Daniely Francisque, Gloriah Bonheur, Patrice Le Namouric - Guyane : Gerno Odang, Tabita Rézaire, Anne Meyer.
Other artists from Martinique, such as Raymond Médélice, and from Guadeloupe will be represented through their work: Cédrick Isham, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Steek, Tim Frager, Jérémie Paul and Ronald Cyrille.
Other Caribbean guest artists include: Laura Castro (Dominican Republic), Rachelle Geneüs (Haiti), René Schneiderson (Haiti), Ian Harnarine (Trinidad and Tobago), Juan Requena (Venezuela), Pepe Mar (Mexico), Michael Gil (Cuba) and others have been invited to participate in the program.
Among Miami-based American artists: Patricia Carby and Brandon Cruz.
Among the events interpreting the theme “Echo-Natures” is the exclusive opening concert INSULA with pianist Maher Beauroy’s trio at the Koubek Center on Thursday, March 13th, 2019. The exhibition Echo-Natures: Cannibal Desire curated by Jean-Marc Hunt and Marie Vickles, which is an extension of the exhibition “Desir Cannibale” presented last year by the Fondation Clément in Martinique, will be inaugurated on Saturday, March 16th, 2019, at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex. Women from local communities are invited to participate in free workshops to prepare the climate-dance and installation Yué#Sorority, presented by Myriam Soulanges, Anne Meyer and Guy Gabon at the PAMM on Thursday, March 14th at sunset in a powerful final performance facing the ocean. Several short-films from the Caribbean, curated by Third Horizon, will be presented, in presence of film director and producer Fanny Glissant at the PAMM on Thursday, March 14th, and at the Wolfsonian-FIU. Tabita Rézaire will present mystical digital art at the Wolfsonian-FIU on Friday, March 15th, while Henri Tauliaut and Patricia Carby will interprete Bubbles echoing oceanic fantastic creatures. Giscard Bouchotte, in his Raranaval street procession, will unite Haitian carnival traditions and contemporary performances, and invite the public to dance and walk in the streets of the Design District in a symbolic and peaceful gesture of re-appropriation of the neighborhood on Sunday, March 17th at 3pm. To close the Festival at the Koubek Center, Daniely Francisque and Gloriah Bonheur will make us shiver in the theater play Hurricanes, directed by Patrice Le Namouric.
The educational approach of the festival, reaching out to underserved communities and in particular youth, remains a key aspect of the Festival. Several dedicated workshops for children and teens will be offered: the Tout-Monde Kids! will allow children to participate in an ecological art work in a 4-hands-on workshop with Guy Gabon at the MOAD on March 14th. Tout-Monde Teens! offers a breakdance lesson with the four dancers of the show Biosphere, directed by José Bertogal, which will be presented on Saturday, March 16, at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex at 8pm. The ICA Miami will also host a special Conch Performance and story-telling session with Nathalie Lezin for the Tout-Monde Kids! program as part of the ICA family day on March 17th.
In addition, every day, a professional workshop will be proposed for art professionals to develop professional opportunities, stimulate discussions, and learn more on “Digital Art in France and in the Caribbean” (at the Wolfsonian-FIU), “Programming performing arts in the Caribbean” (LHCC) or “Contemporary Caribbean Art today” (ICA).
A private Closing Ceremony will take place in the presence of the Tout-Monde Jury, composed of art professionals, to reward a winning artist with the Tout-Monde Award (a sculpture trophy created by artist Edouard Duval Carrié), consisting in a one-month artist residence at the Fountainhead Residency.
The Tout-Monde Festival has benefited from the generous public support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the USA, Institut français, Ministère de la Culture - Direction des Affaires culturelles de la Martinique, Direction des Affaires culturelles de la Guadeloupe, Direction des Affaires culturelles de la Guyane, Martinique Tourism Authority, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
It has benefited from the generous corporate support of Heico, as well as Dr. Fausto de la Cruz,
as well as the corporate support of the Club Med, Essence Corp, Interaudi Bank and Paul Mc Kenna.
The festival was also made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, the Greater Miami Conventions and Visitors Bureau, Martinique Tourism Committee, and Dr Fausto de la Cruz, and thanks to sponsors ClubMed, and Mouton-Cadet
Check out our social media for program updates: #ToutMondeFestival2019
