The Wake (2021)
The Living and the Dead Ensemble
The Wake
2021
3-channel HD video installation 35 minutes
Courtesy of the artists
Overview
Formed in Port-au-Prince in 2017, the Living and the Dead Ensemble comprises 10 artists, performers and poets from Haiti, France and the United Kingdom who collaboratively create narratives interweaving Haiti’s present with its mythical, colourful and often forgotten histories. The Wake (2021), a three-channel
video installation and performance, revolves around the charged atmosphere of a night filled with demonstrations, earthquakes and the fire of struggle and pain, rebirth and chaos, fuelled by voices from the Black Lives Matter movement. Amid these flames, a community dreams of flight, travel and alliances among diasporas, invoking the restlessness that haunts our electronic realms. A performance version of The Wake takes place
in the courtyard of Bait Obaid Al Shamsi during the opening week.
