Programme placed under the patronage of Aimé CESAIRE
This programme is based on grants of €1.5 million obtained over 3 years, under the 2007-2009 Priority Solidarity Fund, for the Afrique et Caraïbes en créations department. This fund will help to mobilise other grants for projects, whether as part of agreements with regional authorities (notably in Guadeloupe and Martinique) or regional co-operation funds or private partnerships, in addition to the resources of organisations partnering various developed projects.
Caraïbes en créations is a programme aimed at encouraging and helping to build up a Carribean cultural environment, by initiating or accompanying regional co-operation projects, driving forces in the development of a regional dynamic to integrate the territories concerned.
Alongside the individual projects put forward by artistes and operators when calls for projects are made, Caraïbes en créations implements, in partnership with the region’s major institutions, wide-ranging development projects that will visibly and durably contribute to the construction of the Caribbean’s intellectual, symbolic, artistic and economic environment.
Territories concerned
CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
* GUADELOUPE, MARTINIQUE, GUYANA, ANTIGUA & BARBUDA, BARBADOS, DOMINICA, GRENADA, HAITI, JAMAICA, PUERTO RICO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, SAINT KITTS & NEVIS, SAINT LUCIA, SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO, CUBA, VIRGIN ISLANDS
CONTINENTAL CARIBBEAN
** UNITED STATES, MEXICO, BELIZE, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICA, PANAMA, COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA, GUYANA, SURINAM, BRAZIL
Calls for projects
Every year, between September and November, calls are launched for projects for the following year. These involve support for research and creative residences, training projects, plans for the creation and dissemination of artistes and works from the Carribean region, in all the artistic disciplines.
This is open to projects emanating from Caribbean islands (+ Surinam & Guyana)*, including the French Departments of America, the greater Caribbean** and more generally the Americas (United States and Canada).
The programmes take the following 3 forms:
- the VISAS POUR LA CREATION programme: 10 individual grants for residences, research or creation, will be allocated to artistes from every artistic discipline.
Out of these 10 grants, 5 will be given for a residence in another Caribbean country from the recipient’s residence, and 5 others for a project in a country chosen freely from the map of the world.
- the ATELIER DU MONDE programme will accompany training projects on a regional scale, in the fields of theatre arts, visual arts or cultural engineering. These projects should be proposed by a structure, a cultural operator or a company.
- the APPUI A LA CREATION ET A LA DIFFUSION system for regional co-operation plans submitted by artistes or operators and involving the partnership of at least 3 greater Caribbean countries including the proposer’s (companies or cultural operator).
The partnership of at least 3 countries should be based on a link with structures taking a real part in setting up the project’s budget (budget contribution or logistics, helping to implement resources).
These projects will be examined and selected by professional committees set up by the Institut français. They will be measured according to artistic and economic criteria and in relation to the regional co-operation dynamic from which they stem.
Decisions to back the projects submitted will be made public at the end of January each year, and can concern projects taking place between March and December.
Major structural projects
These major projects will run over 3 years, between 2007 and 2009, mainly concerning 3 activity sectors:
- books and debates on ideas,
- visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, new images, fashion, design…),
- contemporary dance.
BOOKS AND DEBATES ON IDEAS
1/ THINK CARIBBEAN
This programme will set up a series of meetings between intellectuals and artistes in partnership with the universities, including debates on ideas.
The first edition, which will also be the founding event of Caraïbes en créations, will be held in Haiti at the end of June 2007.
• SYMPOSIUM, A WORLD TO SHARE
In a symbolic venue: the Citadelle du Roi Christophe at Cap Haïtien, opposite the bay where Christopher Columbus landed in 1492. A second edition of this symposium will be organised at the end of 2008 in Martinique in partnership with the Regional Council, the Regional Co-operation Fund, the Regional cultural affairs department (DRAC) and the Fondation Bernard Hayot.
2/ BOOKS AND WRITING
The issue of translation for the dissemination of writers and works through the region is a decisive factor in drawing up policies on books and support for local events (book shows.. etc). On this point, the Caraïbes en créations programme could organise support for translations, especially between Haiti and Santo Domingo in liaison with "Plan Traduire" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Caraïbes en créations programme will also provide support for the first edition of the Les Etonnants voyageurs festival, to take place in Haiti in the autumn of 2007. On this occasion, a special issue of Cultures Sud will be published in 3 languages so as to include important texts from each countries that have not been translated in the other countries.
An anthology of Caribbean literature will be compiled in partnership with a French publisher and local publishers, scheduled to come out in 2009.
VISUAL ARTS
1/ PHOTOGRAPHY
A significant operation will be developed in partnership with the Centro Leon in Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic.
This will take 3 forms:
- The constitution of a photographic heritage collection on the history of the Carribean that will result in a genuine digital archive of the region’s history, based on the now widely scattered photographic heritage (this project will be carried out in liaison with the Guadeloupean photographer, Jean-François Manicom, who initiated it)
- Encouragement for contemporary photographic creation, including commissions given to photographers in the region for setting up contemporary archives
- The organisation of a major photography biennial that will be split between Santo Domingo and Santiago de Los Caballeros and could happen at the end of 2008 or in early 2009.
2/ DESIGN
A partnership with the Havana Architecture Biennial, to be held in May 2008, as part of a new project with the Saint-Etienne Biennial, will organise a major design workshop, attracting designers from all over the region to mount a display during the Biennial. This exhibition will then be available to tour the region and beyond, and could profit from the networks and partnerships forged with numerous reception structures at the time of the Design Made in Africa exhibition, set up 3 years ago.
3/ CREATION OF A REVIEW ON VISUAL ARTS IN THE CARIBBEAN
The strong demand from artistes in the region for a real Review of Visual Arts in the Caribbean met with a warm reaction at the Plastic Arts Biennial in Havana. A plan will now be developed with the latter for the publication of an annual review, to be printed and circulated throughout the region, with a presence in every territory.
This project will be carried out with other partners and key visual arts figures in the region.
DANCE
Dance, which is an important discipline throughout the region, has tremendous need of serious backing, to bring the artistes in touch with one another and make it possible to organise a wide-ranging event to show the state of the region’s creativity.
1/ REGIONAL WORKSHOP
In the initial stages, in order to encourage creation in the area’s artistes, a large regional workshop will be organised between 30th July and 19th August 2007 in Haiti.
It is organised in a partnership between the choreographer Jean Guy Saintus, a Haitian who will provide the venue for the workshop, and the Guadeloupean choreographer Léna Blou.
This workshop will host around thirty choreographers working in the Caribbean.
2/ CREATION OF A DANCE BIENNIAL
Also, a big Dance Biennial, scheduled to travel round the region, will be organised. A first edition is planned for March 2008 in Cuba, where an association of the country’s dance operators will be involved in the planning.
This Biennial will be the subject of a project call throughout the region for shows already created to take part in a competition.
A prize for contemporary creation will be awarded by a jury, and the prizewinning company will benefit from a major tour in 2009 with the French cultural network in Central America and the Caribbean.
As with the DANSE L’AFRIQUE DANSE Biennial, this Biennial will strongly mobilise international professionals and journalists.
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