«To be Engulfed» is one of the chapters of Roland Barthes’ essay, A lover’s

discourse : Fragments. I’m moving the questions from that chapter on love

where Barthes talks about love and annihilation. «Therefore, on those

occasions when I am engulfed, it is because there is no longer any place

for me anywhere, not even in death. The image of the otherIo which I was

glued, on which I lived-no longer exists; sometimes this is a (futile) catastrophe

which seems to remove the image forever, sometimes it is an excessive

happiness which en abies me to unite with the image; in any case, severed

or united, dissolved or discrete, I am nowhere gathered together; opposile.

neither you nor me, nor death, nor anything else to talk to.» Between personal

and poetic texts, by Stuart Hall and Marx in The Kapital, I wander between

visual memories and the monument in Cazale (Haïti) where the Haitian-

Polish communists were shot during the Duvalier regime.

The heritage of anthropological museums, monuments and steles, linked to colonial and post-colonial histories, are the research engines for the sculptural landscapes she elaborates. With the support of Western and overseas (Haiti) tales and legends, Gaëlle Choisne reveals the traces of a mute history, and thus summons the idea of a local exoticism.

With its title evoking one of the world’s largest slums located in Haiti, the installation Cité Soleil (2014) functions as the backbone of this exhibition: a veritable landscape that is both strangely chaotic and ordered, this protean structure gives rhythm to the space while serving as a support for the presentation of sculptures, photographs, and videos, among which Cric Crac, which gives its title to the exhibition. In Cric Crac #1 (2013), Gaëlle Choisne went to Haiti to film two guides at the colonial museum in Moulin-sur-Mer who tell stories about zombies – an eminently political and colonial figure – and Haitian werewolves.

She continues this investigation in Cric Crac #2 (2015), which documents and exposes some of the complexities of Haitian culture as it confronts the weight of dominant imperialism. The artist’s attraction to the blending of cultures is reflected in a series of works produced especially for the exhibition, inspired by the ancient heritage of the City of Vienna.

Between occult fables and objective science, between Caribbean Haiti and and ancient Vienna, Gaëlle Choisne proposes to the visitor to wander in a universe rich universe of multiple references, constituting by that very fact as many tracks to to understand a post-colonial universe that constantly oscillates between between fiction and reality, nostalgia and fantasy.

Exhibition realized with the kind collaboration of the Centre de Restauration et d’Études Archéologiques Municipal (CRÉAM), and the Museums of Vienna.