THE SCULPTORS OF GRAND RUE, 29TH JUNE

 THE SCULPTORS OF GRAND RUE, HAITI

Tuesday 29th June 2010 | 7pm-10pm

GLORIAMARIAgallery, Via Watt 32, Milan   

 “The labelling of art as “primitive” is always applied from an external perspective. It is not a descriptive term, but a prescriptive one. The term is associated to the art as a consequence of limited understanding. It is more than just an empirical description of the work as it suggests what the work should be; a value judgement. It is in this sense today that one can not only affirm that primitive art does not exist, but that, in a sense - like an autosubsistent objective reality - it has never existed”. 

from "Il Mito dell'Arte Primitiva", in V. Sironi (a cura di), Arte e cervello. Pittura, musica e neuroscienze, Graphis, Bari, 2009

Ivan Bargna, Academic Researcher and Professor of Aesthetic Anthropology, Bicocca University, Milan

 

The Grand Rue Sculptors are a community of artists living in a downtown slum neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This is the newest art community to have emerged in the last ten years. They have produced art that reflects a heightened, Gibsonesque, Lo-Sci-Fi, dystopian view of their society, culture and religion, and have dragged Haitian art into the 21st century. 

André Eugène, Celeur Jean Hérard and Cheby are at the core of the movement producing powerful sculptures. Their work has opened entirely new vistas into the creative possibilities of the Vodou-inspired arts of Haiti. 

Their muscular sculptural collages of engine manifolds, computer entrails, TV sets, medical debris, skulls and discarded lumber transforms the detritus of a failing economy into deranged, post-apocalyptic totems.

The Grand Rue Artists hosted a "Ghetto Biennale" in December 2009, inviting artists from around the globe to come to Haiti and make site-specific work. It was a "Salon des Refuses" with great international participation.

Many structures along the Grand Rue collapsed during the hearthwake, and one of the artists, Louco, was killed. The Ghetto Biennale and the spirit of the Grand Rue, however, lives on. Leah Gordon, the main organizer of the Biennale, and Andre Eugene, one of the core artists, have traveled to NY, London, Australia and now Italy, to speak about art in Haiti and the Caribbean, and Haiti's reconstruction. Artists in Haiti have not stopped creating art.

Art is as intrinsic to life.

The artists of the Grand Rue have an extraordinary capacity to drive the reconstruction of their neighborhood and the artistic life of Port Au Prince.

A powerful introduction to the Sculptors of the Grand Rue-- a short documentary by Leah Gordon: 

http://vimeo.com/9387977

Websites for the Ghetto Biennale and the Sculptors of the Grand Rue:

http://www.ghettobiennale.com/

Articles on the “Sculptors of the Grand Rue” in the New York Times and the Miami Herald Tribune:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/arts/artsspecial/18HAITI.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/01/03/1404980/ghetto-biennale-recycling-and.html

The exhibition at GLORIAMARIAgallery will be on view until September 15th, 2010. 

Gallery hours: Monday - Friday 10AM-1PM and  3PM-6PM or by appointment

 

For further information please contact:

gloria@gloriamariagallery.com  | pr@gloriamariagallery.com | info@gloriamariagallery.com

 

 

 

 

 

  

GLORIAMARIAgallery | Via Watt 32 | 20143 Milan | T +39 02 8708 8548 |www.gloriamariagallery.com