Nadia Huggins. Below the Surface. Circa No Future, 2019. © Nadia Huggins. Courtesy of the artist.

In celebration of Caribbean women’s voices and creative power in the context of the WOPHA Congress 2024, an exhibition will feature Caribbean women photographers, each inspired by literary works and poems by Caribbean female authors. The exhibition is anchored by a powerful quote from the renowned Guadeloupean author and Alternative Nobel Prize Recipient Maryse Condé, who wrote in her 1986 novel I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, “They called me a witch, but in truth, I was simply a woman who knew her worth.”

The exhibition plays with the different interpretations and ideas of witchcraft as a metaphor for female strength, ancestral wisdom, and resilience, challenging long-held societal perceptions. Through a dynamic dialogue between image and text, the photographers reveal intimate thoughts and personal reflections, offering viewers a glimpse into the hidden facets of their lives that shape their creative processes. The exhibition not only highlights individual stories but also connects them to the collective memory and shared heritage of the Caribbean, prompting reflections on power, gender, and resistance in a postcolonial context.

About the Curators

Éline Gourgues is an independent curator and cultural engineer based in Fort-de-France, Martinique. She has carried out various assignments at renowned institutions such as the International Center of Photography in New York, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Rencontres d’Arles, where she held positions in exhibition production and collections management. Since 2019, she has been co-directing Station Culturelle with Éléna Arnoux, an association based in Fort-de-France, dedicated to supporting, developing, and disseminating the emerging Caribbean art scene through residency, exhibition, and cooperation projects. She also contributed to the development and production of exhibitions for the international biennial Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane. Today, as a member of the scientific committee of the Maison de la Photographie Amazonienne (MAZ), she participates in artistic and scientific programming while developing international strategies to enhance the visibility of the Guyanese-Caribbean art scene. Her projects focus on creations that express new perspectives or original myths, liberated from pre-established norms, dominant cultures, and representations.

Vanessa Selk is a German-Guianese creative practitioner, art director, and consultant focusing on Caribbean contemporary and activist art. She is the Founder and Executive & Artistic Director of the TOUT-MONDE Art FOUNDATION. Selk directed, curated and produced various cultural programs focusing on visual and performing arts in the Caribbean, such as the Tout-Monde Art Festival in Miami. Recently, she co-curated “The Open Boat”, a group show launching the ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE, a collective for galleries and artists featuring artworks from the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic, co-founded with Lisa Howie. Following her diplomatic tenures at the United Nations specializing on Human, Cultural and Indigenous People’s rights, and later as the Cultural Attaché/Head of the Cultural Office of the French Embassy in Florida (today Villa Albertine), Selk has focused her work and research on the interconnections of art and politics experienced by underrepresented communities, with a particular emphasis on ecological contexts and disaster situation in colonial/postcolonial settings. Recent essays on this subject were published in The Power of the Story: Writing Disasters in Haiti and the Circum-Caribbean edited by Vincent Joos, Martin Munro, and John Ribó, as well as in Forgotten Lands: Neo-Carib Visions (Volume 6). As an independent advisor and consultant, she is accompanying emerging collectors, artists, and institutions from the Caribbean and beyond to better navigate and access the international contemporary art market.

About the Organizers

Founded in 2018, La Station Culturelle has emerged as a key player in Martinique’s cultural landscape, evolving from a provider of exhibition spaces and workshops to a prominent cultural engineering agency and resource center.

The TOUT-MONDE Art FOUNDATION is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and public charity supporting Caribbean contemporary visual and performing artists through impactful international projects dedicated to their 3E-values: Ecology, Education, and Equal Rights. It raises funds to connect artists, cultural institutions, art professionals, collectors, scholars, event organizers, and political players worldwide.

ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE is an online platform and collective for galleries and artists to connect with collectors interested in contemporary art and design from the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic.