Like Father, Like Son |
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Written by Elisa Turner, BT Contributor |
October 2019 |
Little Haiti’s new art space extends a legacy
A In “Paradise Lost in Nostalgia,” contrasts abound between Cuba’s past and present. Those contrasts are captured by Marice Cohn Band, C. W. Griffin, Carol Guzy, Juste, Pablo Martínez-Monsiváis, Jeffrey A. Salter, and Charles Trainor Jr. The show’s title comes from Juste’s photograph of the Carnival cruise ship Paradise leaving Havana. The sleek white vessel, efficiently equipped with lifeboats, dwarfs Havana landmarks as it glides out to sea. Seen side by side with this deluxe paradise, El Morro fortress resembles a frumpy, old-fashioned toy. On land, tiny figures with outstretched arms wave to the ship.
As Juste talks about his passion for photojournalism while walking around this exhibit, he teases out layers of irony and history entwined with the photos’ precisely observed facts. He points out another photo he shot, showing a tourist in a restaurant dancing with a singer as a musician strums a guitar. On the wall in the restaurant is a photo of Hemingway with Castro. “Look at all the American branding, all this commercialism. This whole idea of Americana being celebrated, but the whole reason for the revolution was to extract that,” he says. Still, the selling of nostalgia to tourists leads to kids in Cuba having cell phones, to people working as translators and entrepreneurs.
Inevitably, he recalls Miami Herald assignments in Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The exhibit, he says, is “a strange juxtaposition of past, present, and maybe future. Cuban future is in the now, that’s in Iraq, that’s in Haiti. Even in a country like ours, you have this sense that our future is being deferred.” Juste laments a decline in “our sense of liberal democracy and openness. It’s almost like we are fearing discovery. It’s almost like the planet is becoming flat again.” He’s a charismatic advocate not only for the art of photojournalism, but for making connections among diverse cultures in Miami. “I have felt for years Miami was very segregated in terms of its art expression,” he says. “You had places you would go and never see people like me [he was born in Haiti to a Haitian father and Cuban mother]. But now that’s changing. “And Edouard Duval-Carrié is a huge testament to that change,” he adds, noting how the Haitian-born artist has regularly combined artists from Latin America and the Caribbean for the exhibit series “Global Caribbean Crossroads” at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex. Duval-Carrié owns the property housing IPCArtSpace, just steps from the cultural complex. With all the talk about Little Haiti gentrification, recalls Juste, “Edouard came to me and said, ‘Hey, let’s draw a line in the sand. Let’s create a space that speaks to Haitian culture and history.’” So they worked together to make this new space happen. “Nice little cultural tango,” Juste smiles.
On the first floor is the gallery with room for screenings, as well as a small shop with pieces from Extra Virgin Press, books, and other items. Prices range from around $23 for some objects to $8000 for art by Duval-Carrié. On the second floor is a loft studio for an artist’s residency. Juste continues: “My main interest is having a space where we can have really honest conversations about art, culture, and politics.” He envisions IPCArtSpace as an integrated destination with different people coming together: Haitians with Cubans, Republicans with Democrats -- a place where “we could all agree that the love of art is moving us to create an identity that is more collective. Art can transcend time, space, race -- all these things that hold us down.”
The IPCArtSpace is based on the talents of the Iris PhotoCollective, founded in 1998 by Juste and three other photographers. The collective now involves André Chung, Griffin, Juste, Martínez-Monsiváis, and Clarence Williams III. According to the ICP website, they “explore and document the relationship of people of color to the world,” while hewing to the highest standards of photojournalism. With this art space, Juste, who is 56 years old, expands upon the legacy his father, Viter Juste (1924-2012). The elder Juste was a revered community leader, activist, and businessman in Miami’s Haitian-American community. After fleeing Haiti following the election of murderous François “Papa Doc” Duvalier in 1957, Juste eventually settled in Miami with his family. He coined the name Little Haiti. Says his son: “It’s imperative that I keep that spirit going to my last breath.”
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Volume 17, Issue 10, December 2019
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