N/V_PROJECTS ◊ BLOG

In December 2009, Tracey Moberly travelled to Haiti as a participating artist in the first Ghetto Biennale. She wrote the below article for the March issue of Dazed & Confused before the earthquake struck, but we have decided to pull forward publishing to draw attention to her appeal. Her photographs are all from downtown Port-au-Prince, an area that suffered intense damage just a month later and is now in the heart of the UN-designated 'Red Zone', preventing aid from reaching these embargoed areas. In downtown Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, the “Red Alert Zone” is home for three weeks to the world’s first Ghetto Biennale, with 35 artists and scholars in attendance from many countries, including Haiti, USA, UK, Jamaica, Colombia, Croatia and Germany. In the Grand Rue area of the ghetto, we navigate past food stalls, welders, pavement garages and people just hanging out (most with stunning, sculptured physiques and posture). People entering into the ghetto are greeted by a sculpture of Vodou (“voodoo”) god Papa Legba – trickster, warrior, and messenger of destiny. Standing over eight metres high and sporting a formidable phallus, it is constructed from a car chassis, part of an old truck, bed-frames and scrap metal.

to see more: http://www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/6425/1/Haiti_Ghetto_Biennale