Author: John Cussans

Artist, Writer, Researcher and Educator
Posted on

Haiti Pavilion at Venice

For the first time in its 116 year history the Venice Biennale has a Haiti pavilion. Other countries exhibiting for the first time are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

This is quite an achievement and very interesting given that the Ghetto Biennale of 2009 was staged as a ‘Salon De Refuses for the 21st Century’ and as a ‘Critique of the Biennale Circuit’.

The achievement seems to have been in large part due to the very hard work of Daniele Geminiani who has curated the Tau Cross formation ‘Death and Fertility’ pavilion which houses sculptures by Jean Hérard Celeur (aka Celeur), Andre Eugene and Jean Claude Sentillus, all of Atis Rezistans.

It’s great to see this project come to fruition. And it certainly will generate some food for thought regarding the forthcoming 2nd Ghetto Biennale and the philosophy underpinning it.


Posted on

Revolutionary Spirit Wars in Contemporary Haiti

My article  ‘Revolutionary Spirit wars in Contemporary Haiti’ (based on the ‘Invisible Mirrors’ film) has just been published in the latest Strange Attractor journal.

It features written contributions from Richard Barnett, Mark Blacklock, Erik Davis, Paul Devereux, Roger Dobson, Joanna Ebenstein, Stephen Grasso, Gyrus, Ken Hollings, Mike Jay, Phil Legard, David Luke, Eleanor Morgan, Alan Moore, Steve Moore, Michael Neve, Andy Sharp, Robert Wallis, Sean Walsh.

It can be ordered from the Strange Attractor website here.
I’ve posted a PDF of the article here.

Posted on

André Eugene and the Grand Rue Community on BBC News

Here is a great slide show and report from Grand Rue by BBC Radio 4’s today program.

Great to see Alex Louis in the background of one of the shots working away on a laptop.

And fantastic news that Eugene is planning to build a memorial to the earthquake with the bones of victims. It’s a brilliant idea. I think that will be a major and much needed work that will hopefully bring international attention to the hypocritical double-standards of the western corporate media’s approach to the permanent man-made catastrophe occurring in Haiti.  Continue reading “André Eugene and the Grand Rue Community on BBC News”

Posted on

Tele Geto 2 – Globe Town Speaks Back


This is part two of a project that began as a collaboration between students at Morpeth School and the Atis Rezistans community from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The name Tele Geto derives from an artwork created by young people from the Atis Rezistans community of Grand Rue, Port-au-Prince (Ti Moun Rezistans) during the Ghetto Biennale which took place there in December 2009.  Three weeks after the Biennale Haiti was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and many more injured and homeless. In the wake of the disaster I sent a camera and microphone to Ti Moun Rezistans  so that they could start making films about their lives after the quake which could be shown on the internet. At this same time I was approached by Andrew Cooper from the Portman Gallery to curate a show with students from Morpeth School. Continue reading “Tele Geto 2 – Globe Town Speaks Back”