Framer Framed

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Language: English

KAZAL is a photographic project that traces the memories of the dictatorship of François Duvalier in Haiti through the history of Kazal, a village north of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, where a major event in the contemporary history of the country was perpetrated in 1969 and obliterated from official history: the massacre of Kazal.

Over the course of three years, six photographers from the Haitian collective Kolektif 2 Dimansyon (K2D) created a dialogue with the inhabitants of Kazal to interrogate their memories of places and events. They encountered a troubled history which, to this day, has not yet been acknowledged.

Within the project, photography is the main form of narrating memory. At the same time, as testimony to the past, photography is content and can be a source of historical knowledge; it reactivates the memory of a historical fact and invites its reflection. This project functions as a basis to explore how photography remains, however, a fragmentary, partial, subjective, polysemous testimony.

The works show an interpretation of reality and trauma that can never be completely grasped in the context of Haiti and a post-Duvalier generation. For this presentation of K2D’s KAZAL project the show features an additional perspective on memory narration from Haitian artist Tessa Mars. Mars explores the transformative strategies for survival, resistance, empowerment and healing that image making and storytelling propose.

Artists
Kolektif 2 Dimansyon: Edine Célestin, Fabienne Douce, Reginald Louissaint Jr., Mackenson Saint Felix, Moïse Pierre, Georges H. Rouzier
& Tessa Mars
Audio recording: Dumas Maçon
Curator: Nicola Lo Calzo

Location
Framer Framed
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71
1093 KS, Amsterdam

Exhibition dates: 27 May – 21 August 2022

Opening times: Tue – Sun, 12:00-18:00 (Free Entree)

Photo: © Jean Marc Abelard

Supported by
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap; Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst; Stadsdeel Oost; Fondasyon Konesans Ak Libète (FOKAL).