Kwa Bawon: A Video Installation

Through a powerful Haitian Vodun symbol, “the keeper of the cemeteries,” the video moves in between myth and reality, real and imaginary spaces to provoke introspection and self-interrogation. With seven monitors, the Kwa Bawon simultaneously broadcasts a synthesis of images and scenes of Haitian life—Vodun ceremonies, vèvès (Vodun drawings) and the television news. Embedded in some screens are extracts from press articles used as a way to remember and pay homage to the victims of President Aristide’s dictatorship. The installation, a mosaic that draws on the traditional and the contemporary, resonates with an electronic musical composition that integrates chants and Vodun rhythms