From the village to the world

« Dreaming is undoubtedly the first path to freedom. To dream is already to be free. ». Frankétienne, Insomnia Flowers: Spiral. Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1986.

My painting is particular for a country like Guadeloupe, because I do not paint the beauty of the landscape, I do not paint slavery, I do not paint independence. I do not paint the founding mythology of our territories, nor rebellion and even less submission. One might have expected a saving immanence in creation, but this is not the case. I paint the reality of our identity by ceding it to the public gaze. I paint an identity that would be the future of the world because, today, individuals in the world mix themselves randomly through population movements. I paint a « become » which would be the future of the world, a world that we seek to silence. A world where we will have to learn, exchange, build and erect on uncertainty: Humanity, rather than on economic profitability. A world that has been mine since the abolition of slavery. An unparalleled reality.

Authenticity in art is above all the artist's sincerity in what he achieves. It is then the audacity he shows to give form to this artistic approach, seeking deep within what it is, the tools to develop his vision of the World. In this sense, I am a Guadeloupean artist. I use everything that I am and everything that makes up my identity to « talk » to the public. It is my Guadeloupean identity that has shaped my thinking about the world.

My painting is undoubtedly different from European painting, because it does not fit into a particular artistic movement and is not defined by a singular writing as the « classification » European. I am free to express my vision of the world with the language that seems appropriate to what I have to say at the time I create. It is a way of creating, in my opinion, that is specific to our Guadeloupean realities. Diversity, fragmentation, plurality, diffraction and redundancy make us people who are sometimes difficult to identify, but who constantly build on themselves, whatever the adversity they encounter, while opening up to others. Even though Guadeloupe is only a point on a world map, a department of France, a region of France, and I would say unfortunately, a colony of France, I consider it a country. A country that must define itself and think about itself at every moment. With men and women who build on themselves between the search for the truth about their origins, their History; the difficult existence of today and the uncertain future that can be glimpsed on the horizon of our ills, outside of any community, while opening up to others. Individuals who know how to come together for a just cause, even beyond their borders. Due to the richness and diversity of Guadeloupe, there is a flowering of arts and artists engaged in life and in their works. A creative force still in the making in a strong identity context, but in gestation. These works of art are the image of a world, under construction, with a mark determined to evolve in the continuity of the « become » nations. An art that draws inspiration from its territory, speaks of its plurality, its fragmentation, while opening up to others without allowing itself to be diluted in the encounter with the other.

A work that reflects the schizophrenia of peoples: Living together, each for himself.But also a work that, although being identitarian, allows each person to define themselves in relation to the other. A work that will enter into the internationality of the senses by respecting differences, because the Guadeloupean is avant-garde in the functioning of our societies which will become, and are already becoming, in his image. Not in relation to skin color, but in relation to social and individual diversity, to the partitioning and decompartmentalization that is taking place and to the musical, artisanal, theatrical, culinary and plastic richness that it possesses. A territory with artistic terroirs different from what we know and which must be approached with a new perspective. Our music shines on the world already without us knowing it, it is therefore time to put our arts in their place and define ourselves to exist in time. Such is the will of the artists today who work tirelessly on this inevitable construction of Guadeloupean Art.

Goodÿ – 03/11/2016