The Ghetto Biennale (

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

: ''Geto Byenal'') is an international contemporary arts exhibition held every two years in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

during November and December.

History

The Ghetto Biennale was founded and is curated by Andre Eugène, an artist and a member of the local group of sculptors known as the Atis Rezistans, and

Leah Gordon Leah Gordon (born 1959) is a British photographer, artist, curator, writer and filmmaker. Her work explores the intervolved and intersectional histories of the Caribbean plantation system, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the Enclosure Acts and th ...

, artist and curator. The idea for the event started when Eugéne and other artists were unable to obtain US Visas for an exhibition in Florida, to which they had been invited to exhibit in.

"In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, however, the Ghetto Biennial takes a cold, hard look at what it means to be unseen and excluded from the highly networked, globalized, financially fluid mainstream art circuit. Founded in 2009 by André Eugène and Leah Gordon along with members of the collective Atis Rezistans, the event was created to address the fact that artists living and working in Haiti are often not able to travel—even if their work is included in a major exhibition abroad—often from lack of resources or flat-out visa refusal due to severe restrictions on Haitian passports." –
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

Two of the city's poorest districts known as Lakou Cheri and Ghetto Leanne adjacent to the Grand Rue in central Port-au-Prince act as primary sites for the Ghetto Biennale. The biennale offers an opportunity for local artists – often without any training – to work side by side and collaborate with visiting international artists. The Ghetto Biennale has provided an alternative model to the larger and more predictably '

all star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

biennale In the art world, a biennale ( , ; ), is a large-scale international contemporary art exhibition. The term was popularised by the Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895, but the concept of such a large scale, and intentionally internationa ...

s that have become common in over 250 cities around the world since the 90's.

Editions

*2009, 1st Ghetto Biennale *2011, 2nd Ghetto Biennale *2013, 3rd Ghetto Biennale: ''Decentering'' The Market And Other Tales Of Progress *2015, 4th Ghetto Biennale: ''KREYÒL, VODOU and the LAKOU : Forms of Resistance'' *2017, 5th Ghetto Biennale: ''A Cartography of Port-au-Prince'' *2019, 6th Ghetto: ''The Haitian Revolution and Beyond''

Bibliography

* Gordon, Leah. ''Ghetto Biennale = Geto Byenal : 2009-2015''. London: No Eraser, 2017.

References

External links

Official website
Haitian art {{art-display-stub