A photo exhibition on the 1969 Kazal massacre in Haiti, on view at Framer Framed.

KAZAL - Narrating Haitian Memories is a photo project that traces memories of François Duvalier's dictatorship in Haiti by looking at Kazal's history.

This village north of Port-au-Prince, is the site of a traumatic event in the country's contemporary history that has been erased from official history: the Kazal massacre. In 1969, militia from the Duvalier regime bloodily crushed a peasant uprising in Kazal. These peasants were protesting against heavy taxes and the ban on the use of the river in their village.

For three years, six photographers from the Haitian collective Kolektif 2 Dimansyon (K2D) interacted with Kazal residents about their memories of places and events. They encountered an eventful history that remains unrecognised to this day.

Dates: 27 May - 1 July 2022 (Tue - Sun, 12:00 - 18:00)
Curator Nicola Lo Calzo
Artists : Kolektif 2 Dimansyon: Edine Célestin, Fabienne Douce, Reginald Louissaint Jr, Mackenson Saint Felix, Moïse Pierre, Georges H. Rouzier & Tessa Mars
Audio recording: Dumas Maçon
Opening : 25 May (17:00 - 19:00) - Open to the public.

ADDRESS
Orange Free State Quay 71
1093 KS Amsterdam
Netherlands

OPENING HOURS
Tue - Sun
12:00 – 18:00

CONTACT
info@framerframed.nl
www.framerframed.nl

Within the project, photography is the main form in the telling of memory. At the same time, as testimony to the past, photography can be both content and source of historical knowledge; it activates the memory of a historical fact and invites reflection. However, this project also explores how photography constitutes a fragmentary, partial, subjective, and ambiguous testimony.

The works show an interpretation of reality and trauma that can never be fully grasped in the context of Haiti and a generation after Duvalier. This presentation of K2D's KAZAL project also offers an additional perspective on the narrative of memory through work by Haitian artist Tessa Mars. Mars explores the transformative strategies for survival, resistance, empowerment and healing that image-making and storytelling can offer us.

Kolektif 2 Dimansyon (K2D), founded in October 2014, consists of journalists, photographers and filmmakers from Haiti. K2D was founded with a desire to enrich the Haitian media and artistic field with an alternative use of visual art.

Nicola Lo Calzo (1979) is an Italian photographer, queer artist and PhD researcher. After studying architecture, he turned to photography. His photographic practice and research focuses on questions of heritage, coloniality and identity. He is currently working on a long-term photographic research project on the memories of the slave trade and slavery, their resistance and abolition.

Georges Harry Rouzier (1984) initially studied architecture, but later turned to photography. He works with the press and international NGOs. He is founder of FOTOPAKLE and lives in Port-au-Prince. His work on the Haitian-Dominican border was presented in Limoges and at the Photoreporter Festival.

Réginald Louissaint Junior (1986) is a Haitian photographer born in Port-au-Prince. After studying linguistics, he shifted his focus to photography, with a special interest in news reports. His works "Les hôtels de luxe" and "Grand Rue" have been published by Fokal. In 2015, he was a resident at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d'Arles.

Tessa Mars (1985) is a Haitian visual artist, born and raised in Port-au-Prince. She completed a bachelor of fine arts at Rennes 2 University in France in 2006, after which she returned to Haiti to live and work. In her work, Mars considers storytelling and image-making as transformative strategies for survival, resistance, empowerment and healing. Through her paintings and papier-mâché works, Mars explores topics such as gender, history, traditions and challenges dominant narratives that seek to simplify and flatten the experience of people on the "margins".