“Opening up to the Caribbean is opening up to the world” said Martinican philosopher, poet and author Edouard Glissant (1928-2011).
“France is a Caribbean country. As such, the role of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services in the USA is to contribute to this global mindedness through our French Caribbean culture, through our local presence in Florida. As regional Caribbean hub, Miami was the perfect city to launch the Tout-Monde festival, to shed a new light on the quality and subtlety of Caribbean art, which has been relegated for too long to exotic landscapes”, says Bénédicte de Montlaur, Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the United States.
MIAMI, FLORIDA, 02-07-2018 – 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 1st to March 4th, 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 present contemporary artistic, cultural and intellectual practices of the greater insular, continental and diasporic Caribbean context, 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 Florida, the United States and the wider Caribbean region, and to reflect upon the meaning of the “Tout-Monde” today.
Under a French Caribbean leadership trio – composed of Vanessa Selk, director and founder of the festival and Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy, and Johanna Auguiac and Claire Tancons, two internationally renowned curators – the first edition of the festival will center on the theme of Hétéronomonde, confronting ideas of heteronomy and autonomy within the Tout-Monde. “Hétéronomonde sets forth and confronts ideas that are specific to the molding of Antillean identity within the wider Caribbean region and in a world where the process of belonging and relating are questioned everyday”, say Auguiac and Tancons.
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 French artists are Josiane Antourel (Martinique), Lena Blou (Guadeloupe), Jean-François Boclé (Martinique), Yna Boulangé (Martinique), Robert Charlotte (Martinique), Julien Creuzet (Martinique), Ronald Cyrille (Guadeloupe), Kenny Dunkan (Guadeloupe), Black Kalagan (Martinique), Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc (French Guiana), Mirtho Linguet (French Guiana), Guillaume Lorin (Guadeloupe), Jacques Martial (Guadeloupe), Shirley Rufin (Martinique), Jacques Schwarz-Bart (Guadeloupe) and Kelly Sinnapah Mary (Guadeloupe). The other Caribbean artists are Loriel Beltran (Venezuela), Adler Guerrier (Haïti), Jilian Mayer (America/Cuba), Shirley Bruno (Haïti).
Their creative productions in each field will be shown over the course of four days in four emblematic cultural venues, representing each a different cultural heritage, community and neighborhood in Miami: the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), The Wolfsonian Museum–Florida International University, the Little Haiti Cultural Complex and Mana Contemporary/Wynwood
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, 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 3rd, 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. On Sunday March 4th, a collective exhibition of contemporary art and photography, as well as a concluding round table with the artists, will offer a larger picture of this Hétéronomonde.
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. Animation film director Guillaume Lorin will share the secrets behind the production of an upcoming animated Caribbean movie; an urban performance directed by Street Art for Mankind composed with muralist Ronald Cyrille, slammer Black Kalagan and a dancer will invite students to interact; The Wolfsonian library will reveal printed materials from its extensive Caribbean cruise line collections.
In addition, the Tout-Monde Festival will act as a regional platform for Caribbean Business and Tourism with special events and dedicated spaces for partners to meet and help develop economic and touristic exchanges between Florida and the Caribbean, with the aim of increasing Miami’s role as a Caribbean hub for contemporary artists, academics, instructions and businesses, and of developing relations between the Caribbean region, Florida and the United States.
A private Closing Ceremony will take place in the presence of Sylvie Glissant, director of the Tout-Monde Institut in Paris and Edouard Glissant’s widow. During the ceremony, an international jury composed of academics, curators, and museum directors, will be chaired by American-Haitian artist Édouard Duval-Carrié, and reward one artist with the Tout-Monde Award, which offers an art residency program for one month at the Fountainhead Residency in Miami.
More information:
During the festival, the Tout-Monde shuttle between institutions will be free and available all day for visitors. Schedule coming soon.
In addition, a Tout-Monde OFF program will allow other partner galleries and institutions to propose a special Caribbean highlight on Caribbean artists. List coming soon.
Finally, a Tout-Monde pop-up library and shop, in partnership with Books&Books and Nyaké concept will be open to the public.
Partners and sponsors
The festival has been organized in close partnership with: the Pérez Art Museum Miami, The Wolfsonian Museum-FIU, the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Mana Wynwood, Third Horizon, the Fountainhead Residency, French Arts Associates, Street Art for Mankind, New World School of the Arts, and the Consulate general of France in Miami.
It 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, Guadeloupe Islands Tourist Board, Comité du Tourisme de Guyane, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs.
It has benefited from the generous corporate support of the France Florida Foundation for the Arts,
Norwegian Air Shuttle, Heico and Rhum Clément. It has also received support from Antilles Shipping, Essence Corps, Interaudi Bank and Dr. Fausto de la Cruz.
Our partners are also l’Institut Tout-Monde, Hyatt Regency Miami, Books&Books, Kreyol Magazine, Mediaphore, Nyaké Concept and Prizm Art Fair.
About the festival
The Tout-Monde Festival is a multidisciplinary contemporary arts festival that creates new opportunities for Caribbean contemporary artists by fostering relations and building long-term partnerships between French Caribbean and other Caribbean artists, academics and cultural institutions in Florida, the United States and the wider Caribbean region. By doing so, the festival also endeavors to develop the knowledge of future generations about Caribbean culture and to encourage tourism and economic exchange between Florida and the Caribbean.
The Tout-Monde Festival is an initiative of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services, in close partnership with the France Florida Foundation for the Arts.
Founded and directed by the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services in Miami, Vanessa Selk, the festival is curated for its official launch and first edition by Johanna Auguiac and Claire Tancons.
About Cultural Services of the French Embassy of the United States
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, educational and university programs to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French-American exchange around literature and the arts. In Miami, the local office focuses on particular fields such as French language and literature, design and Caribbean art. http://frenchculture.org/
About the France Florida Foundation for the Arts
The France Florida Foundation for the Arts (FFFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by the Consulate General of France in Miami and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. The FFFA’s primary mission is to develop relations between France and Florida by raising funds and supporting projects that encourage all forms of cultural, educational and professional cooperation between French and Floridian institutions and individuals, but also to increase the awareness and appreciation of French and francophone culture and history. It is presided by Dr. Melissa Patrylo since April 2017. . http://www.francefloridaarts.org/
About the curators
Johanna Auguiac-Célénice is an independent curator and director of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art (BIAC Martinique), founder of JM’Arts gallery (2002-2012) in Paris and curator for several festivals. Through the editions of Martinique and Guadeloupe Nouvelle Vague, she set about discovering, against the tide of exotic clichés, contemporary art of the Caribbean & Americas for a better dissemination and recognition. Artistic advisor for Kréyol Factory, Grande Halle of La Villette (Paris 2009). In the Caribbean, she commissioned Maditierra, (Cuba); Caribbean Clim’Art / COP 21, (Fort de France) and Turning Tide, with Tumelo Mosaka at the Memorial ACTe (Guadeloupe).
Claire Tancons is a curator and scholar invested in the discourse and practice of the postcolonial politics of production and exhibition. Among her many curatorial highlights include En Mas’: Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean, an Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award-winning traveling curatorial project (2014-present). Tancons has recently begun to work as a music curator for the Origins Season of the National Sawdust in New York (2017-18). She has also curated for established and emerging international biennials and is currently a curator for the upcoming Sharjah Biennial (SB14, 2019).
About the invited guests, artists and academics
Cultural Ambassador
Christiane Taubira (French Guiana – lives/works in Europe) is a French Politician, former Minister of Justice of France. She was an adamant advocate for the 2001 law which established the Atlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity. In 1993, she founded the Guianese party Walwari and was elected Member of the National Assembly of France for French Guiana.
Artists
Josiane Antourel (Martinique – lives/works in Martinique) is a choreographer and dancer. She is deeply inspired by the spirit of drum and jazz. Dancing for over thirty year, her work is characterized by a certain joyful austerity.
Léna Blou (Guadeloupe – lives/works in Guadeloupe) is a Caribbean dancer and choreographer. Her aim is to show the contemporaneity of Guadeloupean traditional dance: Gwoka. She is the founder and director of her own school, Larel Bigidi’Art.
Jean-François Boclé (Martinique – lives/works in Europe) is a visual and performing artist. His art questions the bipolarity of our contemporaneity, oscillating between dystopia, violence, racialization or gentrification, and the possibility a WE.
Yna Boulangé (Martinique – lives/works in Martinique) is a dancer and comedian. She likes to work in partnership with artists in all disciplines and areas to satisfy her curiosity. Art is for her a way to express freedom.
Robert Charlotte (Martinique – lives/works in Martinique) is a photographer who explores Caribbean portraits. Between abstraction and figurative images, his work focuses on behaviors, attitudes, and social group expressions.
Julien Creuzet (Martinique – lives/works in Europe) takes his inspiration from literature and poetry. The discontinuous geography of the Caribbean deeply structures his work, consisting of both composite sets and unity. He explores the legacies of African, European and Indian civilizations in the Caribbean.
Kenny Dunkan’s (Guadeloupe – lives/works in Europe) work is built around video, installation and ritual performances. He uses his recollections of the Guadeloupean Carnival to create his own vocabulary in which one can find a complex Creole identity.
Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc (French Guiana – lives/works in Europe) focuses on the neglected part of colonial and post-colonial history. He addresses a diversity of subjects such as absence, violence or hate through images (drawing, film, powerpoint, etc.).
Mirtho-Crépin Linguet (French Guiana – lives/works in French Guiana) uses photography to express and question his fracture with the artificial world shown today in magazines and on television.
Jacques Martial (Guadeloupe- lives/works in Guadeloupe) is an actor, playwright and theatre director. He is also President of the Memorial ACTe- Caribbean Centre for Expression and Remembrance of the Slave Trade in Guadeloupe.
Shirley Rufin (Martinique – lives/works in Martinique) focuses on the taboo of nudity in post-colonial Caribbean societies. She uses the photographic image as a tool to manipulate reality.
Jacques Schwarz-Bart (Guadeloupe – lives/works in France and the United States) is a jazz saxophonist. His impressionistic writing, powerful tone, and wide-ranging language – both lyrical and angular – have fueled a growing presence on the world stage.
Kelly Sinnapah Mary’s (Guadeloupe – lives/works in Guadeloupe) work focuses on the identity building process within the colonial post-slavery period, often characterized by domination.
Artists (Tout-Monde Teens)
Ronald Cyrille (Guadeloupe – lives/works in Guadeloupe) is a young contemporary artist. His youth in Dominica, surrounded by unique landscapes and Caribbean way of life, fed his imagination as he became an artist. Today, his inspiration comes from his interest for street art, where he is known as B.Bird.
Guillaume Lorin (Guadeloupe – lives/works in France) worked on several animation projects before creating its first film “Vanille”. This modern tale expresses Guillaume’s own Caribbean imagination by presenting the adventure of a little Caribbean girl in quest for identity.
Black Kalagan’s (Martinique – lives/works in Martinique) early passion for Creole and French sounds and words grows in the streets and later in France, before he finally returns to his native land for a first slam scene, which marked a turning point in his artistic life and freedom of expression.
Academics and authors
Yarimar Bonilla (Puerto Rico – lives/works in the United States) is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of Non-Sovereign Futures: French Caribbean Politics in the Wake of Disenchantment, which gave inspiration to the curators’ definition of “Hétéronomonde”. She explores the notions of sovereignty, citizenship, and race across the Americas.
Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique – lives/works in Martinique) is a French Caribbean author. He won several awards and distinctions among which the Prix Goncourt and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He is the author of the Éloge de la créolité « In Praise of Creolness » alongside with Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant.
Michael Dash (Trinidad-and-Tobago– lives/works in New York City) is a Professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture who focuses on the work of Edouard Glissant and the Caribbean –specifically Haitian-culture.
PROGRAM LINE-UP
Monday, February 26th – VIP PRE-LAUNCH RECEPTION &
PRESS CONFERENCE
(By invitation only – Undisclosed Venue)
6.30pm: Arrival
7pm: Introduction and presentation of the Tout-Monde Festival
- Consul General : welcoming speech, presenting partners and sponsors
- Vanessa Selk, Festival Director: introduces Tout-Monde Festival and Curators
- Claire Tancons & Johanna Auguiac, Festival Curators : presentation of Hétéronomonde
7.15pm: Press conference (journalists only)
7.45pm: A presentation of the French Caribbean Islands
8pm-9pm: Caribbean drinks and Networking Event
Day 1 – Thursday, March 1st – Pérez Art Museum Miami
1103 Biscayne Blvd. Miami // +1 305 375 3000
6pm-6.20pm: Opening speeches (Auditorium)
Moderation and introductions by Vanessa Selk, Director and Founder of the Festival.
- Presentation of the partnership by Tobias Ostrander, Chief Curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami
- Presentation of the Festival by Bénédicte de Montlaur, Cultural Counselor, French Embassy in the USA
- Christiane Taubira, Cultural Ambassador of the Tout-Monde Festival
6.20pm: Inaugural Conference (Auditorium)
- Introduction and presentation by Edwidge Danticat, Moderating author
- Patrick Chamoiseau & Michael Dash in conversation: “Edouard Glissant’s Tout-Monde: relevance and significance in politics and arts.” Followed by Q/A from the audience.
7.20pm: Hétéronomonde, Tout-Monde Festival first edition (Auditorium)
- Introduction of Hétéronomonde Edition 2018-2019 by Claire Tancons & Johanna Auguiac, Festival Curators
- Duo performance by Léna Blou & Jacques Schwarz-Bart : dance and musical improvisation on jazz
8.00pm-9pm: Peace Offering (Portico)
- VIP reception (by invitation only)
- PAMM Community night
Day 2 – Friday, March 2nd – Wolfsonian Museum-FIU
1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach // +1 305 531 1001
6.00 pm -7.15pm: Caribbean short-film program curated by Third Horizon: “Tezen” (26min) by Shirley Bruno. Followed by Q&A with Shirley Bruno conducted by Jason Fitzroy Jeffers.
7.15pm-8pm: “Protect me” and “Figure One” installations by Kenny Dunkan, (on view through March), permanent collection of the Wolfsonian Museum–FIU. Informal tour with the artist and curators.
8pm -8.30pm: Conversation with Kenny Dunkan (Wolfsonian Café).
8.30pm – 8.45pm: “Back to Basics” Live performance by Kenny Dunkan (Bridge Tender House).
Tout-Monde Teens
5pm-6pm: “Get on Board! A Caribbean cruise through The Wolfsonian’s archives”, a pedagogic tour and explanation of a small exhibition of The Wolfsonian archives on Caribbean cruises and ships. Curated by Frank Luca, Chief Librarian, Adjunct Professor of History, Wolfsonian–FIU. Show open through March 3th.
Day 3 – Saturday, March 3rd- Little Haiti Cultural Complex
212 NE 59th Terrace, Miami // +1 305 960 2969
www.littlehaiticulturalcenter.com
2-3pm: Yarimar Bonilla, Claire Tancons & Johanna Auguiac in conversation: “Hétéronomonde” (class room).
3pm-3.30pm: Performance by Jean-François Boclé, Title TBC (Plaza and Caribbean Market).
4pm-5pm: “Le cri de mes racines », a duo dance performance and visual poem dedicated to Haïti by Josiane Antourel and Yna Boulangé.
5.30pm-6.15pm: Caribbean short-film program curated by Third Horizon: “Aimé Césaire, Une Voix Pour Histoire” (52min), by Euzhan Palcy. Audience discussion moderated by Shirley Bruno, (Amphitheatre)
6.30pm-7.30pm: “Notebook of a return to my native land” by Aimé Césaire, Theatre play with Jacques Martial (Auditorium).
Tout-Monde Teens
11am-5pm: “Watch out, Soukounyan!” A workshop to create your own storyboard on a famous Caribbean legend. Workshop led by Guillaume Lorin, animation film director from Guadeloupe who directed the movie Vanille, in partnership with Édouard Duval-Carrié, Haitian-American artist who created a series on Soukounyan.
Ongoing at The Wolfsonian –FIU:
5pm-6pm: “Get on Board! A Caribbean cruise through the Wolfsonian’s archives”, a pedagogic tour and explanation of a small exhibition of the Wolfsonian archives on Caribbean cruises and ships. Curated by Frank Luca, Chief Librarian, Adjunct Professor of History, Wolfsonian Museum.
Day 4 – Sunday, March 4th– Mana Wynwood
2400 NW 5th Avenue, Miami // +1 305 573 0371
11am-12pm: Festival Curators, artists & public in conversation: “Tout-Monde at a round-table”.
1pm-2pm: Book signing with guest authors at Books&Books Caribbean pop-up library (Mana Wynwood exhibition space).
2pm-3pm: “Hétéronomonde”. A collective visual arts/photography exhibition with selected works from Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Robert Charlotte, Mirtho Linguet, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Shirley Rufin, Adler Guerrier, Jilian Mayer, Loriel Beltran. Presentation of the artworks by the Festival Curators.
4pm-4.45pm: Caribbean short-film program curated by Third Horizon: “Mommy Water”(20min) by Julien Silloray. Audience discussion moderated by Shirley Bruno (Amphitheatre).
4.45pm-5.15pm: Video installation and performance by Julien Creuzet.
Tout-Monde Teens
3pm-4pm: “Tout-Monde Live: the urban art show”, three Caribbean artists, muralist Ronald Cyrille, slammer Black Kalagan and a Miami-based dancer (TBC) unite to create a spectacular street art performance illustrating the “Whole-World” of Edouard Glissant. Show curated by Street Art for Mankind, a non-profit platform uniting street artists committed to end children’s trafficking in the world.
Private Closing Event (ticketed)
Sunday, March 4th – Little Haiti Cultural Complex
212 NE 59th Terrace, Miami // +1 305 960 2969
www.littlehaiticulturalcenter.com
7.30pm: Final Caribbean cocktail
8 pm: Closing Ceremony and Tout-Monde Award (Auditorium)
- Mr. Clément Leclerc, Consul general of France in Miami
- Mme Christiane Taubira, Cultural Ambassador of the festival
- Mrs. Sylvie Glissant
- Edouard Duval-Carié, Tout-Monde Jury President
- Tout-Monde Award winner
8.30pm: Caribbean buffet dinner for artists, partners and private guests (Lobby)
9.30pm- 1am: After party with Caribbean DJ (Lobby)
Press contact
Sarah Hamon sarah@s2hcommunication.com
Kimberley.gaultier@diplomatie.gouv.fr
Social media
#ToutMondeFestival2018
(website coming soon)