Twòn Kreyol

Twòn Kreyol  unfolds a space where memory intertwines with dream. Through collage and assemblage, Raphaël Barontini combines the iconography of art history, colonial-era ethnographic photographs, and sculptural objects such as West African masks and sacred artefacts to create portraits, costumes, and frescoes inspired by carnival parades and rites of resistance. Barontini focuses on several emblematic figures in the struggle against slavery, setting them in tension with the mechanisms of their erasure from official history—thereby examining the power relations at play in representation.

 

 

About the 19th edition of the Biennale:

Curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi and titled In Praise of the Missing Image, this edition of the Biennale explores the paradox of absence in an image-saturated world. Presented across 11 venues citywide, it features works by 23 artists representing 14 countries, 4 Canadian provinces, and 5 Indigenous communities, including Raphaël Barontini.

 

Through explorations of hybridization, fluidity, and fugitivity, the participating artists create emancipatory images that recover marginalized or erased narratives. This edition reflects on the cultural and political dynamics of visual culture, raising fundamental questions about the construction of images and stories: which are told, how, and by whom.