2nd Ghetto Biennale 2011

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ARCHIVED WORK OF PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & SCHOLARS

Militza Jean-Felix

As a first generation Haitian-American artist I am a product of the diaspora. I collected found objects from the streets of Port-au-Prince and constructed a human figure-like sculpture. I travelled with the sculpture to the town that my mother is from, Jacmel. I then hiked and hitchhiked to Port-au-Prince, the city that my dad is from, while carrying the figure. At the end of my trip I set the figure down at the atelier of the Grand Rue. The original plan was to walk the entire distance between the two cities while carrying the figure as a meditation on the diaspora. My intention was to design a project that was physically demanding and emotionally challenging as a reflection on all the challenges faced by those who migrate across borders. Upon my arrival I was informed that it would be entirely too dangerous to walk the whole distance.

A large part of the Ghetto Biennale experience is an understanding of community and a willingness to bend and adapt to the limited resources and conditions in Haiti. I understood this before I arrived and with the help of my local friends in Jacmel, mapped an alternate route that took us from Jacmel to Seguin. I hiked from Seguin through La Viste National Park and up into the mountains with the figure on my back or over my shoulder. I paid homage to my family and the diaspora as I carried a figure constructed entirely from the discarded items that clutter the streets of the city, a figure that was meant to represent myself, through such an enormously beautiful countryside. This is the specific duality that I wanted to explore. I, as a transplanted figure, travelled some of the distances of my parents and that of many Haitians. I created a project that merged elements of the tumultuous life of the city with nature. Plastic and metal fragments, toy parts and other pieces of the fractured city came together in my figure and made a pilgrimage through the little talked about natural spaces of the Haitian countryside.