Beginning in the 1960s, America witnessed the emergence of a black counterculture, which a few years later took the name of Afrofuturism in the academic writings of Mark Dery.
With time, this counter-culture has turned into a real cultural movement: an artistic, aesthetic, musical, clothing (and other) current whose thought is radical and critical of Western society.
Afrofuturism reinvents black communities by imagining them in dystopian and magical societies, emancipated from all traces of colonization, and by reappropriating technologies.
In visualizing these worlds, it is still difficult to find the place of Afro-Caribbeans in them, without erasing a part of their identity. Caribbean societies are often referred to as “creole” (a term at the heart of many unresolved debates), in reference to the multiculturalities that make them up, inherited from colonization and various migrations.
Edouard Glissant novelist, poet and philosopher from Martinique, defines “creolization” as
“A crossbreeding of arts, or languages that produces the unexpected. […] a space where the dispersion allows to gather, where the clashes of culture, the disharmony, the disorder, the interference become creative. It is the creation of an open and inextricable culture, which overturns the standardization by the great media and artistic powerhouses.”
( see Le Monde interview here )
If in the case of Caribbean societies it is difficult to imagine a past without colonization, it is possible to dream and try to establish hypotheses about a free future where all the peoples would have succeeded in obtaining reparations and emancipation.
What would these so-called creole societies look like? What would cultural identities and systems of thought move towards? What would they look like visually? What aesthetics would be privileged? What would the bodies be adorned with?
It is a great reflection that requires taking into account many factors and from which we could draw a multitude of hypotheses. With videos selected by David Démétrius, this week’s selection offers you tracks of universes to explore to feed your dreams on the future Caribbean societies.
In a pastoral, romantic setting, with a completely atypical soundtrack, A.Potts presents its Spring/Summer 2022 collection. We appreciate the organic shapes, the ruffles, the textures that wink to our memories while transporting us into a future dimension.
The Caribbean designer Déborah Latouche presents the new collection of Sabirah. True to the progressive ambitions of the brand, we are welcomed into a cosmopolitan and sororal universe conducive to the upliftment of all women regardless of their size, religion or race.
This short film presents Anciela’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection, while paying homage to the grandmother of Jennifer Droguett (the brand’s designer). It questions what happened in the 70s and 80s, and imagines a conversation between the past and the present in an in-between universe. Using poem and song to support the dialogue, this story explores themes of social change and healing through art.
To finish this selection, here is the Spring/Summer 2022 collection by Botter where the Caribbean is honored in the face of climate problems. Co-titled “Global Warning” it reminds us of the climate of emergency in which we are currently, by immersing us in an alternative and dystopian world, with the ambition to put the environmental crisis at the center of priorities, without which it will be difficult to project ourselves into any future.