Succeeding in exhibiting one’s works in the recognized gallery of a neighborhood renowned for its excitement is not only a great personal success, but also, in this context of ignorance and large-scale lobotomy, a real political act.
Immersed in a world of acrylic and Mysteries: three series are brought together in a large Parisian gallery on 11e district: “Haitian Nights”, “The Deep of Dreams” and “Nou ak sa n pa wè yo” (which gives its name to the exhibition).
The Invisibles often manifest themselves in the form of animals painted in white on large canvases which favor chiaroscuro shades, minimalist use of bright colors (otherwise the passion red of Petro).
Vaporous entities present everywhere every day, listening to a child in the forest (“Regard of the future »), of a man at the crossroads now ready to follow Legba (“Clearance »). But also under that of plants: tall grass as if conscious, spectators of the connection of an initiate with the hidden world (“Overlap »), engaged trees seeming to advance towards a seated little boy (“Dialogue innocent “). Perhaps they whisper to him of the irreparable damage that total deforestation would cause in the two linked universes, while a wise Mystery (here represented in the form of an attentive owl) suggests the route to follow.
Bitter childhood | © Magnin-A gallery
The links between natural elements, fauna and flora, and the spirit of men. The presence of the missing in the world of the living.
Vitalism and passages are thus embodied in the gallery Magnin-A. Proposing avenues for reflection on subjects which are now (should be) of universal scope in times of ecological destruction.
Failing to already grasp the cultural heritage coming from the original African land, maintained and enriched by slaves to withstand deportation and enslavement, perhaps French visitors will be sensitive to this other, more discreet, but essential, Haitian Vodou.
No rolling eyes, therefore, nor spectacular trances in the last exhibition (but first in Europe!) by the painter Port-au-princien Schneider Léon Hilaire.
The painter Schneider Léon Hilaire
Which should reassure certain purists who are always quick – instead of rejoicing in the success of Haiti’s child prodigies beyond its borders – to play the scornful. To scream at the betrayal of the certainly oral essence of voodoo, even at the maintenance of a dubious taste for exoticism and the theatrical on the French side.
It is true that the American series and films which have flooded the Old Continent (and therefore shaped minds) have not been easy. Dolls pierced with needles and an all-out psychopathic Papa Legba, superposition of carnival clichés and fantasies have contributed to demonizing and demeaning the animist religion.
Innocent dialogue © Magnin-A gallery
Certainly Jean Price-Mars and indigenism, Hector Hyppolite and Robert Saint-Brice. Yes Jacques-Stephen Alexis, the Saint-Soleil community, Levoy Exil, Franketian spiralism. Obviously Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Dany Laferrière, Yanick Lahens, Gary Victor, Lyonel Trouillot and Makenzy Orcel.
A manbo tames pain from the embers, translating the wishes of the loas.
Who else will cross with her the curtain of fire that separates the sacred from the profane world ?(« Eclat petro I » )
The developments, the bridges or parallel paths between Haitian painting and literature to take Vodou out of the box in which History had left it (Cross and whip under colonization then so-called “anti-superstitious” campaigns — instrumentalization by the Duvaliers — contempt of the urban classes for “peasant beliefs”) is known.
Haitians.
Enthusiasts and collectors.
But French people as a whole?
The tricolor intelligentsia – Malraux, Breton, Sartre etc – only represented itself and, what could their positions at the time since Saint-Germain-des-Prés change in the face of the firepower of Hollywood and faced with the gazelle-like modesty of a so-called republican school when it came to dealing with the colonial period(s) (the study of slavery and the so-called overseas colonies always represent only one chapter in the year in History class 4e at the French college. Some lines…)
Read also: Shneider Léon Hilaire wanted to be a doctor, painting got the better of him
Little.
Even today, a stupid rebroadcast episode of the series “Magnum »presenting a made-up insider playing a knife will always carry more weight than a thoughtful speech published in a specialized magazine intended for a few scholars. Or to investors monitoring the odds of the Art market.
For a Jimi Hendrix singing about resilience and the power of will (“Voodoo Child » ), how many humiliating potions inoculated via remote controls (mistresses of the time in Europe)?
Possession of love © Magnin-A gallery
It is obvious that the French public has for a long time accepted this gruel without resistance (cultural and therefore political weapon, let us make no mistake!), undoubtedly made more digestible by a collective unconscious still not recovered from the Bois-Caïman ceremony (which almost no French person knows, let’s be clear: hence the essential notion of collective unconscious. Historical), of its consequences for the former slave-owning power.
« Voodoo is one of the constituent elements of the Haitian imagination. It was their first response, of a mystical nature, to the Atlantic slave trade and the other great misfortunes of slavery and colonialism. […] Voodoo is a psychodrama, a theater, an opera, a dance school, an erotic steam boiler, the generator of the Haitian marvelous reality in all its existential forms», wrote René Depestre when “Popa Singer ».
The spirit of a deceased person escapes from the vault at night. His faithful canine companion came to remind him « Beyond the links ».
It is therefore an understatement to say that the French know little about vodou (so much the better, some would say. A good war). Brushes quickly get tangled as soon as they are thrown out of their comfort zone.
They always refer it lazily (without admitting it) to a form of tropical witchcraft which awakens their ancestral fears, the fire of initiations vaguely evoking that of inquisitorial pyres and the trances of riding the diabolical possessions canonized by Rome.
Nor do Vertières, Dessalines or even Toussaint Louverture evoke much about them. The French do not know the Haitians. Have forgotten, obliterated from their software, Haiti. Ignoring not only its fierce news, but even the debt, its geographical location, slavery and the Santo Domingo colony.
Hop ! Under the memorial carpet, the too shameful past ! Magic slate !
And an entire country — without even passing the word! This is undoubtedly the most incomprehensible – to brake with all four irons at each attempt at evocation.
Does this resistance come from Freudian theory applied on a large scale? From the stubborn refusal to accept the too ugly reflection in its beautiful mirror? Intolerable ?
In any case, it is hardly glorious, but remains a reality.
Without doubt, when you are Haitian, you must have once traveled to Europe to realize with amazement the degree of collective repression, ignorance and lack of culture reached here.
The observation is cruel, even insane as the histories of the two nations are linked: and yet.
Succeed in exhibiting his works in the recognized gallery of a neighborhood renowned for its excitement, works based on the interpretation of oral tales patiently collected like an ethnologist (Schneider Léon Hilaire was very interested in the whispers and parables coming from the Côtes-de-Fer region), is not only a great personal success, but also, in this context of ignorance and large-scale lobotomy, a real political act. In the noblest sense of the word.
Eclat petro I © Galerie Magnin-A
Politics, moreover, invites itself even more frontally into the basement of the gallery. The usurping cats lounge in the cemetery. Dressed in significant red.
« The painting “Council of Ministers” is a criticism to denounce the mismanagement of the country by casual ministers. The characters dressed in red have the heads of a cat, an animal which symbolizes the thief, and they are in a cemetery, because if one wears red during a funeral one is perceived in the eyes of all as the one who caused the death», Explains the young 33-year-old painter.
Neither Mermaid nor Erzulie, a faithful one unites with Agouet, master of the waves. Marine spirits represented as transparent fish launch a protective round, invisible to some (“Marriage with Agouet »).
Further on, Damballa in his reptilian form whistles his advice into the ear of a follower. Ayida also appears in a dream. And a lougarou dressed as a fire turkey (symbol of voodoo thought?) holds back a sleepwalking child, preventing him from going out alone at night in the darkness. Alone in the midst of the dangers of an infernal era, without faith or law (“Daydream »).
Let’s hope that the brilliant work of the Port-au-Prince artist will meet its audience in Paris, with these subtle bridges launched. And will finally uncover the too many people there who are ignorant of the creative powers, island prides and Haitian cultural treasures. If the loas want it.
Exposition “We and what we do not see” (“Nous et les Invisibles”) by Shneider Léon Hilaire — from January 13 to March 16 — at the Magnin-A gallery, Paris 11.
Cover image: Council of Ministers |© Magnin-A gallery
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