Last April, we presented this beautiful and large exhibition entitled “COVID, Collecting Our Voices In the Caribbean & Diaspora”. 27 artists from ten Caribbean territories were given the task of transcribing through their works the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in our region.
This artistic work, organized by the Museum Association of the Caribbean (MAC), was to be open only virtually for eight months, i.e. from 16 April to 26 November 2021. Finally, a physical presentation of the works of the 6 participating French-speaking artists was decided upon and was to take place from 5 to 26 August 2021 at the Arawak Hotel in Guadeloupe, then in Martinique.
Local art lovers were already looking forward to discovering the works of the six Guadeloupean and Martinican artists composing this collective exhibition using painting, mixed media, poetry and video.
It was a pleasure for Élie Babel (photographer and poet), Céline Bernabé (multidisciplinary artist), Bruno Métura (visual artist) and Ruddy Marc Roquelaure (visual artist) from Guadeloupe as well as for May Clémente (visual artist) and David Gums (multidisciplinary visual artist) from Martinique to meet the visitors in their island and have exchanges with them.
Unfortunately, this epidemic of Covid-19 has taught us that we live more than ever in a world where uncertainty is high. Indeed, because of the surge in the number of cases of people infected with the “Delta variant” and the number of deaths in these two French-speaking and Creole-speaking islands a lockdown and a curfew have been put in place by the authorities. And even if the opening in Guadeloupe was brought forward to 4 August from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm, the stopover for the exhibition “COVID, Collecting Our Voices In the Caribbean & Diaspora” did not receive the expected popular success. On the following days, only a few small groups of people had access to the works while respecting the barrier gestures.
The next stop of this exhibition will be in Martinique in partnership with the Atrium, Scène nationale. Let’s hope that the improvement of the health situation on the island will allow us to celebrate the talent of our artists as it should be.
