TOUT-MONDE Art FOUNDATION

Think, Create and Act with the Whole-World.

Newsletter N°1: HOMO SARGASSUM

“I call the Whole-world our universe as it changes (…). The totality-world in its physical diversity and in the representations, it inspires in us: that we could no longer sing, speak or work in the pain from our place alone without plunging into the imaginary of this totality.” Édouard Glissant

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dr. Tatiana Flores

Dear Tout-Monde Community, It is a great pleasure and honor to introduce you to the TOUT-MONDE Art FOUNDATION, a New York based 501(c)3 non-profit organization and public charity, co-founded in November 2019 by Valérie Loichot, Mireille Chancy- Gonzalez and Vanessa Selk, in order to support Caribbean artists through impactful projects dedicated to foster change in our 3E-focus areas: Education, Ecology and Equal Rights. Inspired by the thought of Édouard Glissant, Martinican philosopher, author and poet (1928- 2011) who theorized the concept of the Whole-World, our mission is to help Caribbean artists develop their work beyond a regional framework, by connecting them to other artists, institutions, art professionals and collectors of the Tout-Monde, the Whole-World. Through our projects, we express an identity that is rhizomatic as defined by Glissant: instead of being rooted in one place or anchored to one language, every human identity is defined by horizontal encounters with others, evolving through time and space, defined by our relation to others and by our acts. The COVID-19 pandemic and the global social movement brought forth by the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have further highlighted how connected we all are through the world, and how crucial it is to act as One Humanity, One Planet. It is high time and an ethical responsibility for cultural institutions to take into account underrepresented communities, not only during special programs or a dedicated month, but on a daily basis. This needs to become the new norm. African or Afro-descendant contemporary artists have gained recognition in the last few years from a renewed interest from the art market through dedicated art fairs and galleries. But this is not enough. There are more invisible minorities that need support, recognition, and nurturing. Caribbean artists are foremost among them. This region, which is crucial to the understanding of world history and contemporary geopolitics, has been segregated from the territories around it, ignored, and silenced. n fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has been hitting the art world in all ways, including institutions like ours which seek to support artistic communities. Being a young foundation, we have been struggling through our birth, but we had the advantage of flexibility and adaptability. Realizing that a “back to normal” would not happen soon, and that the crisis presented an opportunity to change mindsets and methods, we decided to adapt our projects through hybrid formats, to pursue our mission to serve Caribbean artists by all means. For artists are essential workers who need our support now. We should approach this crisis as a strategic moment to ally causes and build partnerships in order to lift each other. This is why we decided to focus on several initiatives in the upcoming months: 1) the production of a video-exhibition titled HOMO SARGASSUM, allying artists, scientists, anthropologists, entrepreneurs and tech companies to face the ecological and public health impacts of Sargassum-seaweed. This first edition of our Newsletter is focusing on this project; 2) the development of an international strategic partnerships network, our “Rhizome Partnerships” with other institutions committed to promoting Caribbean artists, diversity and equal rights; 3) and finally, a collaboration with the Brooklyn Orchestra directed and conducted by Olivier Glissant to make classical and contemporary music more accessible to all communities and ages through an open air musical and performing arts Season titled “Welcome to Chaos”, planned for the Summer 2021. To make this happen, we need your support. The current crisis has shown how insufficient and little prepared traditional financial channels are to cope with unexpected challenges and to support essential artists and staff in the long run. We therefore invite you to participate in whichever way you can.

Every voice, every face, and every dollar counts to change the face of our Whole- World.

Sincerely,

Dr. Tatiana Flores President of the Tout-Monde FoundationProfessor at Rutgers University and Independent Curator. HOMO SARGASSUM

©Nadia Huggins, Transformations No2, Digital Photograph, 30”x46.5”, 2016 HOMO SARGASSUM is a video-exhibition project, written and conceived by Paris-based artist Louisa Marajo and Artistic Director Vanessa Selk, with the curatorial support of Dr. Tatiana Flores, echoing the Foundation’s Ecology-value: it aims at raising awareness globally about the environmental and health impact of the Sargassum-algae on coastal communities, by inviting over 30 artists from the Caribbean, Latin America and West Africa to collaborate with scientists, anthropologists, researchers, entrepreneurs and tech companies to find solutions to end this scourge. Sargassum releases toxic gases that provoke environmental damage and impact the health of ecosystems and populations. Indeed, because of climate change, deforestation and oceanic pollution, the proliferation of the sargassum has become uncontrolled. Those who are already suffering from a respiratory dysfunction due to the Sargassum are now also facing the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing their vulnerability and risk. The gases also kill marine life and have a disastrous economic impact on coastal states and tourism…Action is now urgent. Only the strong bonds of solidarity and collaboration between all actors and across all fields will enable us to change course. That is why we decided to build a community around artist Louisa Marajo, who started working with sargassum in 2018, gathering the following participants:

Artists: Philippe Alexandre/Collectif Chienfer (Martinique), José Bertogal (Guadeloupe), Minia Biabiany (Guadeloupe/Mexico), Camille Chedda (Jamaica), Xavier Cortada (Cuba/USA), Nicolas Derné (Martinique), Morel Doucet (Haiti/USA), Alejandro Durán (Mexico/USA), Edouard Duval-Carrié (Haiti/USA), Billy Gerard Frank (Grenada/USA), Guy Gabon (Guadeloupe), Annabel Guérédrat (Martinique), Gwladys Gambie (Martinique), Nadia Huggins (Trinidad and Tobago/St Vincent and the Grenadines), Dominique Hunter (Guyana), Deborah Jack (Netherland/St.Maarten), Mirtho Linguet (French Guiana), Anina Major (Bahamas/USA), Louisa Marajo (Martinique/France), Joiri Minaya (Dominican Republic/USA), Ricardo Ozier-Lafontaine (Martinique), Juan Ernesto Requena (Venezuela/USA), María Isabel Rueda (Colombia), Henri Tauliaut (Guadeloupe/Martinique), Philippe Thomarel (Guadeloupe/France) and more tbc.

Researchers: Dr. Martin Munro (Winthrop-King Institute, Florida State University), Dr. Florence Ménez (University of the French West Indies), Dr. Nico Wienders (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University), Dr. Malcolm Ferdinand (CNRS) and more to be confirmed.

Companies and Labs: SARA, HOLDEX, The Marine Box. The project is launched in partnership with the Winthrop-King Institute and the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science of Florida State University, Cortada Projects, Rubis Mécénat and the InPulse Project, the Sara Group and Holdex.

The public will be invited to experience the project in various formats through an immersive journey, presenting installations, paintings, sculptures, photography, video art, sound and scent creations, performances, as well as scientific and technological productions. In addition, in partnership with Rubis Mécénat’s InPulse Project supporting Jamaican youth through visual art, the project also invites Jamaican art students to interact and reflect on the subject.

You, too, can become part of the HOMO SARGASSUM project. Click here to see our teaser and become a HOMO SARGASSUM!

(c) Annabel Guérédrat and Henri Tauliaut, Foetales, Martinique, 2'45, 2015, Film Still GET INVOLVED: Become a HOMO SARGASSUM

©Anina Major, Hope Chest, Stonewear, mirror, cardboard, 24x31x16, 2016

You believe that art is a vital organ of our society and want to support artists who are essential workers and help them creating socially impactful projects even through difficult times? Become part of our HOMO SARGASSUM project and support the artists and scientists in their research and work today: Click here to donate

The Tout-Monde Foundation Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization: donations are tax-deductible. CROSS INTERVIEW: Louisa Marajo & Vanessa Selk

©Louisa Marajo, Sargasse-Sea, Photographic compilation, variable dimensions, 6 editions +1 artist proof, 2019

Louisa Marajo is a visual artist born in Martinique, living and working in Paris. She started working on Sargassum in 2018, first by integrating them into her canvasses, then by taking photographs to narrate different stories, that she scatters into different pieces to compose new sculptures. She is inspired by the Schumpeterian concept of constructive destruction and Kurt Schwitters’ approach of orderly chaos, trying to adopt an alternative perspective on ecological disasters. She contacted the Tout-Monde Foundation in 2019 to collaborate on an artistic project on Sargassum. Vanessa Selk is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Tout-Monde Foundation, living and working between Miami and New York. Growing up between the French Caribbean and Europe, she directed several theater companies and plays in France and the U.S., and worked as a Diplomat for the French government for eleven years, serving both on political and cultural matters, including as Cultural Attaché in Miami where she developed a 3 year Festival and program dedicated to Caribbean contemporary art.

Louisa and Vanessa are the original duo of HOMO SARGASSUM: they conceived it together in 2019 and have been writing, organizing and developing the project ever since.In this Cross-Interview, both ask questions and answer to each other. As they are both interviewees, there is no hierarchy.

1. Vanessa Selk: What was your first encounter with the Sargassum?

Louisa Marajo: I don't know exactly how or when this encounter took place because it was multiple: through the media where information got mixed with reflections; through memories that were mixed with a desire to update them. The first time I worked with sargassum, I took it from the sea, put it underwater to remove some salt, sprinkled an old canvas with the seaweed and fixed it with resin. I wanted to superimpose two chaos, two memories: the one of my painted canvas with the sargassum chaos. It was completely experimental and not very ecological with the use of resin. Time passed and I started to use photos of the sargassum that I was picking up on the beaches of Martinique, using their image or representation. A distance arose, it was the beginning of the transformation. I felt that one could build a new world with these Sargassum, seen at first as something negative.

I had the feeling that these invading sargassum were the marine incarnation of “creative destruction”, as conceptualized by the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, that is, what destroys something but must create something else to replace it, to surpass it, to transform it, because life is an infinite Metamorphosis.We must innovate with the Anthropocene and capitalist scourges that destroy themselves but can be reversed. We must transgress our current vision of ecological disasters and turn them into a moment of positive breakthrough, of creativity for the future. 2. Louisa Marajo: What do you expect from the HOMO SARGASSUM project? Vanessa Selk: It is hard to have high expectations in 2020. Uncertainty has leaked into all spheres: cultural institutions, politics, sponsoring, privacy, dreams…everything is trembling and trying to adapt. But two things have not changed: on the one hand, environmental issues keep worsening, on the other hand, creativity has not stopped. These are two different observations, but they meet in the HOMO SARGASSUM project. I therefore expect the project to be able to build that bridge between art and science to think about new ways of dealing with the sargassum, and to highlight that it is not just a Caribbean concern, but a planetary issue. After shortly hesitating about the future of the project in times of global confinement, the COVID-19 pandemic actually increased the urgency of the project, as it acted as an additional threat to the vulnerability of those whose lungs were already affected by the toxic gases of the sargassum. HOMO SARGASSUM aims at highlighting these shared vulnerabilities and telling the stories of collective and individual resilience.

3. VS: How does the public react to the Sargassum in your works? LM: I can't answer for the public. I could imagine that they feel a certain chaotic fusion.

4. LM: How did you get your ideas for the project? VS: From our collaboration! We both had different references, sources and experiences. Bringing them together expanded our horizons. I spent months reading books and articles about the sargassum and other related issues, talking to experts and curators, in particular Dr. Tatiana Flores. My research on the subject quickly led to one inevitable observation: we needed to include scientists and researchers in this dominantly artistic project. And this led to another conclusion: science offering a Western approach to the phenomenon, we also needed to include other perspectives, including Caribbean spiritual and philosophical thinking on nature and disasters. So, my ideas came from all these horizons and sources: artistic, poetic, historic, political, scientific, technological, philosophical, spiritual…and all were intricately connected to each other, forming one creative life circle. And beyond the connections between all fields, it was key to also link the Caribbean with other regions, such as West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico that are impacted by the sargassum proliferation. Finally, while writing the narrative of the project, it was essential to me that it be understood by anyone, coming from any background, and not limited to an artistic elite. I hope we achieved this objective so far.

5. VS: What do you hope to change or achieve with the HOMO SARGASSUM project? LM: I wish to create a common and creative solidarity around this phenomenon because it becomes obvious that tomorrow's world will be built on the ruins created by this "old" world that we still cannot overcome.

6. LM: What is the place of ecological issues in art today? VS: Art is politics. And one of our major international political debates today is the environment. Not because we believe or not in scientific facts about global warming, but because disasters are political. For they impact people’s lives, property and their environment, and therefore involve governments and media. As ecological issues become this highly politicized sphere, they attract artists who position themselves as political actors, activists, or artivists. They want to actively contribute to raising awareness about planetary concerns, and not just create in a disconnected bubble. All of the participating artists of HOMO SARGASSUM have something to say about oceanic or environmental pollution and climate change, even if through very diverse channels. In addition, I believe that new generations among the public or buyers are also asking the art world to assume greater environmental responsibility. Finally, due to recurring natural threats such as hurricanes or sea level rise in the Caribbean, often accentuated by a colonial or post- colonial context, ecological issues probably take an even larger place in artistic productions of the region.

7. VS: You are also a poet, Louisa. You write about Sargassum in your poetry. If you communicated directly with the Sargassum, what would you say? LM: - How beautiful you are in your mystery, savage, sacred sargasso, deliver me! - Why are you fascinated by my existence? - Perhaps because you escape and invade me? - Are you chasing after what you don't understand? - Maybe I dream of taming us: when I look at you "in the sun, I'm cold".

8. LM: Do you feel HOMO SARGASSUM? VS: Absolutely, haha! I haven’t learned apnea yet, but I love scuba diving precisely for this reason: you become one with a whole new universe, the ocean, breathing underwater like in the womb of your mother, floating and observing creatures you rarely see…these are very meditative and rare privileged moments for me. Also, being Caribbean, like the Homo Sargassum, my ancestors come from West Africa, Burkina Faso in my case, according to my family’s genealogic researches. Like the sargassum transatlantic sea belt, they have made the long journey crossing the Atlantic Ocean, drifting. Drifting is something that certainly characterizes both, my personality and my work, as I never remain too long in one place, trying to absorb the nutrients of the currents carrying me through life. On a more pragmatic level, I am far from being the fully ecological being that we all need to be to let Earth rest, but I am working on it.

9. VS: Bonus question: Is love between man and Sargasso possible? LM: Love exists Wherever there is desire Disinterested, as well as impulsive and lightning. When I look at the Sargassum I walk through her, As I walked her face and wrist As well as the echo of her presence, To draw it, I follow the path of her thoughts Lost and passionate, When I dream about her. How can this plant, this golden flower Cause so many disasters? How can this woman that you like can hurt you sometimes? That's what Love is all about Everything and its opposite The Sargassum, counter-symbol of Wisdom Is like this woman, this man That you love Full of its Ambivalence, This definition of Love: A whirlwind of storms and peace Who can't get over the dust from the sea? A beauty containing its destructive invasive Power. Think, Create and Act with the Whole-World.

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