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HAITI / ATIS REZISTANS
STORY: HAITI / ATIS REZISTANS
TRT: 6.26
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / CREOLE / NATS
DATELINE: FEBRUARY 2009, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
1. Wide shot, Grande Rue with cars passing
2. Wide shot, people and cars passing
3. Wide shot, car tires and “Tap Tap’s” passing by
4. Zoom out, women selling food on the street
5. Med shot, Eugene talking to women and child
6. Tilt up, from women to sculpture
7. Wide shot, sculptures and artist passing
8. Tilt up, from bottom to top of sculptures
9. Close up, Bin Laden sculpture
10. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Andre Eugene, artist:
“In the invisible world there is everything. Engineers, tailors, hairdressers, sculptors, doctors, scientists, everyone. The scientists got together to explain why humankind is dying and why someone who is dead still has an erection.”
11. Med shot, tomb with penis surrounded by sculptures
12. Tilt down, from scull with stethoscope to another scull with stethoscope
13. Med shot, scene of sculptures
14. Med shot, atelier with sculptures
15. Close up, poster
16. Tilt up, sculpture of Bin Laden
17. Close up, head of Bin Laden
18. Close up, wood sculpture with nails
19. Med shot, sculpture with doll and scull
20. Close up, man with baby doll
21. Pan right, drum and typing machine
22. Med shot, two drums with sculpture
23. Close up, sculpture on drum
24. Med shot, artist and children
25. Med shot, children painting
26. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Andre Eugene, artist:
“The reason why I created Atis Timoun is, I grew up in this zone in a poor family, by the time I became an adult, I learned from an artist called “Boss Jeremie” the art of sculpture.”
27. Med shot, children working
28. Close up, sculpture detail
29. Med shot, boy working on wood piece
30. Close up, boy working on wood piece
31. Close up, nails hammering in a wooden piece
32. Med shot, Eugene helping children
33. Med shot, children working on their art pieces
34. Med shot, boy hammering
35. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Alex Louis, “Timoun Resistance”:
“When I came to live here, I found Artist Eugene and Celeur who were working. They liked to work and see us working with them at the same time. Then we started with Eugene and a guy called Luco who showed me how I have to cut tires.”
36. Pan right, children working with Celeur and Eugene
37. Wide shot, sculptors in the street and “Tap Tap” passing by
38. Med shot, sculptors in the street
39. Pan right, shoe sculpture
40. Zoom out, wooden sculpture
41. Med shot, sculpture
42. Pan right, several sculptors
43. Close up, scalp
44. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Jean Herard Celeur, artist:
“The message I want to pass through the sculptures is social, political, economic, sexual, sex. Also in the Creole language you can find clear messages.”
45. Med shot, wooden sculpture and tires
46. Close up, wooden sculpture
47. Med shot, artist Guyodo cleaning sculptures
48. Med shot, artist Guyodo cleaning sculptures
49. Med shot, sculptures in front of green house
50. Pan right, Guyodo working in his house to sculptures
51. Med shot, two huge metal sculptures
52. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Frantz Jacques Guyodo, Artist :
“Those sculptures are male and female which represent Baron and Brigitte. They are two gods in Haitian voodoo who live at the cemetery.”
53. Pan right, metal sculptures
54. Med shot, Guyodo working
55. Close up, garment file
56. Close up, Guyodo’s face
57. Pan right, voodoo doll
58. Med shot, Guyodo opening atelier and entering
59. Med shot, Guyodo and “Baba”
60. SOUNDBITE (Creole) “Baba”, artist:
“It’s a baby that is one year old, which was abandoned by the mother. The baby’s three fingers got cut. The mother was bad to the child and then she got chicken feet.”
61. Med shot, children and their paintings
62. Close up, painting with a doll head
63. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Andre Eugene, artist:
“The reason why I work with the children here is that I am traveling a lot to do workshops in Paris, Chicago, England and Switzerland. It is becoming necessary to teach the children in my town. When I die they can replace us and continue the work we started as artists of the ‘Artist Resistance Movement’.”
64. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Alex Louis “Timoun Resistance”:
“It is wonderful to work here, because sometimes I have difficulties to pay the school fees, and people come here and buy one of my works and I bring the money to my mum and she brings the money to the school. It’s great!”
65. Med shot, sculptures
66. Close up, scull with helmet
The Grande Rue is the main avenue that runs through downtown Port-au-Prince.
It’s a busy, noisy street, full of automobile repair shops, and street vendors. Grande Rue is considered to be one of the most deprived districts of the capital.
Andre Eugene grew up in this environment. As an artist he is the creator of the Grande Rue Artist Movement called “Atis Rezistans”.
His art objects such as huge metal sculptures are influenced by a junkyard atmosphere.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Andre Eugene, artist:
“In the invisible world there is everything: engineers, tailors, hairdressers, sculptors, doctors and scientists, everyone. The scientists got together to explain why humankind is dying and why someone who is dead still has an erection.”
In his atelier, wood and nail sculptures, including of Osama Bin Laden. They were created with recycled objects and human sculls, and some have been shown in art galleries in London, Chicago, Paris and Miami.
Quite often children from the surrounding neighborhood can be seen at Eugene’s atelier.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Andre Eugene, Artist:
“The reason why I created Atis Timoun is, I grew up in this zone in a poor family, by the time I became an adult, I learned from an artist called ‘Boss Jeremie’ the art of sculpture.”
Since 2006, about 20 children between the ages of three and 20 are part of “Timoun Resistance”, a group that lets kids experiment with different styles and different mediums to create their own art pieces under Eugene’s supervision. It keeps them busy.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Alex Louis, “Timoun Resistance”:
“When I came to live here, I found Artist Eugene and Celeur who were working. They liked to work and see us working with them at the same time. Then we started with Eugene and a guy called Luco who showed me how I have to cut tires.”
Celeur is another artist in the “Atis Resistance” group. One of his art pieces is a monumental sculpture on a side street of Grande Rue.
Celeur transforms garbage such as old shoes into art, and disunity to harmony.
He learnt wood sculpting before he started working with abstract forms, adding scrap metal to his sculptures. He dreamt of becoming a sculptor from an early age.
One of his most powerful pieces to date is part of the permanent collection at the Frost Art Museum in Florida.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Jean Herard Celeur, Artist:
“The message I want to pass through the sculptors is social, politic, economic, sexual, sex. Also in the Creole language you can find clear messages.”
In the labyrinth of the Grand Rue backstreets is Guyodo’s atelier. Guyodo is the youngest member and “bad boy” of the three artists of the “Grande Rue”. He was trained by Celeur as a sculpture. Recently, he had an exhibition in Paris.
Celeur sculptures are exhibited a few meters from where he lives. They are made out of metal car parts and other recycled objects found in his surroundings.
SOUNDBITE Frantz Jacques Guyodo, Artist:
“Those sculptures are male and female which represent Baron and Brigitte. They are two gods in Haitian voodoo who live at the cemetery.”
In Guyodo’s work as with the work the other artists of the Grande Rue, voodoo is very present. They bring attention to contemporary Haitian art at the international art scene, and to the poverty in the country as well.
One of the biggest successes of “Atis Rezistans” was their group sculpture which is permanently displayed at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.
Like Eugene and Celeur, Guyodo also has his own students from his neighborhood, and he regularly works with them on practical exercises. Guyodo’s artistic influence on them is quite visible.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) “Baba”, Artist:
“It’s a baby that is one year old, which was abandoned by the mother. The baby’s three fingers got cut. The mother did badly to the child and then she got chicken feet.”
“Timoun Resistans” provides the students not only with creative input during their free time, but it is a source of income for them as well.
For Andre Eugene, founder of Atis resistance, it is an assurance that the Grand Rue artist movement will continue.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Andre Eugene, Artist:
“The reason why I work with the children here is: I am traveling a lot to do workshops in Paris, Chicago, England and Switzerland. It is becoming necessary to teach the children in my town when I am dying they can replace us and continue the work we started as artists of Artist Resistance Movement.”
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Alex Louis, “Timoun Resistance”:
“It is wonderful to work here, because sometimes I have difficulties to pay the school fees, and people come here and buy one of my works and I bring the money to my mum and she brings the money to the school. It’s great!”
Probably not all the children of “Timoun Resistance” will become well known artists like their three mentors. But for the moment everyone can enjoy working in a creative environment.
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