This is the first edition of the BIAC in Martinique, FWI. What is the importance of such an event?
I cannot make a judgment as to its particular importance other than to say that we are all aware of all the positive dialogues that have emerged from the fact that Havana has held an art biennale for decades and helps to foster multiple international dialogues along the lines of visual culture from the Caribbean and beyond. One could easily begin to imagine how a Caribbean circuit could be extremely beneficial for everyone. It is worth noting that Miami Basel takes place in early December addressing an art “marketplace” and that there is also a small biennale happening nearby in Port-au-Prince with counter market roots. I had been asked by the young curator David Frohnapfel who leads the Ghetto Biennale (an unfortunate name that elicits much chagrin for me) but I had already committed myself, with some passion, towards an engagement here in Martinique with curator Johanna Auguiac-Célénice and artist Hervé Beuze as part of her team. I had had a complicated experience in the spring of 2013 with one of Europe’s premiere Biennales and was enthused to have conversations with a team that were clear and concise and with a vision to make things happen while shielding artists and curators from the complexities of the bureaucracies such events must always contend with.
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