Today we’d like to introduce you to Edouard Duval-Carrié.
Hi Edouard, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the late 50’s, and through my mother, a fervent art lover was literally dragged to every artsy function the capital had to offer. Early on I was mesmerized by the production of artists that were affiliated with the Centre D’Art, the oldest and most reputable and long-lasting artistic institution in the nation, I became a regular early on.
After my schooling abroad where I had produced a full exhibition, I presented it to the Centre D’Art where it was well received anchoring me even further in that particular institution. Not long after those early activities I was invited to participate and celebrate the French bicentennial of its own revolution.
This seminal historical event eliminated the status quo i.e.” Ancient Régime” which did end royalty as a form of government, launching democracy as we still understand it today. Evidently, the Republic of Haiti was the product of a massive slave rebellion in France’s most lucrative colony. This debacle between the former French colony and its metropole was crucial in the history of both entities.
For France it was the loss of the colony and for Haiti a very hard-won battle for the demise of slavery and the ensuing freedom. Both places had their battle scars still two centuries later quite palpable and both tried to erase from their memory and history books the period.
France literally erased from its annals and Haiti seemed to start its own history with its glorious ouster of all French. And for me, this was the beginning of trying to understand and make up my own mind as to what really happened which is my delving more seriously and visually chronicling that very particular history.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As mentioned before, it wasn’t something that I knew or that I was taught or very informed about. I.E. 300 years of colonial history had been erased and I had to reconstruct it. I think that in both nations, this simple fact was more than complicated and heart-wrenching.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
By delving into the history and going through the particulars I realized that a trove of information, stories, and misguided misinterpretations that I felt was my duty to put under light. This carries its benefit and its burden, for if these stories were erased it was because they were very hard to swallow.
So here I was trying to do just that and have people doing the swallowing. Though I am more than aware of the contemporary world that I live in, by looking at history as a source puts me at odds with the contemporary art world. But it’s undeniable that having chosen this path puts me in a position where I cannot be erased for I tell a story that has resonance back then and today.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
If being known, doing something relevant and passably living doing it makes me successful, I could say yes. But the reality is that it has not been an easy and star-filled program.
Image Credits
Onajide Shabaka, Martina Tuaty, and Alexia Vorbe
