Launch of the CDA Workshop
Mario Benjamin led the first session of the CDA workshop on Monday, May 1, 2023, at Maison Dufort, where the workshop’s final presentation will take place next summer.
Participants shared their work and experiences and discussed the method to be used to create a single artwork collaboratively by 14 artists.
The workshop brings together artists who practice traditional techniques (painting, engraving, sculpture, etc.) and new disciplines linked to emerging technologies (photography, videography, digital art, etc.).
Depending on the projects to be developed, the workshop draws on a range of technical skills, both national and international. These include model makers, architects, civil engineers, sound engineers, IT and multimedia engineers, electronics engineers, carpenters, welders, among others.
They will assist the techno-artists at the CDA in their creative explorations through cross-residencies, combining short and long stays (up to 4 months), under the artistic direction of Mario Benjamin.
In collaboration with these artists and technicians, he proposes to develop a creative workshop focused on new media.
Occasional cross-residencies lasting two to three months will also be organized.
Indicative Schedule:
- Publication of the call for applications: Tuesday, April 4, 2023
- Application deadline: April 18, 2023
- Final selection: April 20, 2023
- Workshop start date: April 25, 2023
For further information, applicants may send an email to
communication@lecentredart.org
or contact the +509 48 41 42 31.
ABOUT MARIO BENJAMIN
Mario Benjamin was born in Port-au-Prince on May 12, 1964, to a father who was both an architect and a violinist, and a mother who was a pharmacist. He began painting at the age of fourteen. At his very first exhibition, held at Festival Arts Gallery in Lalue in 1984, he sold all his paintings. At that time, his style was hyperrealistic, favoring close-up portraits and placing particular emphasis on the gaze. Shortly afterwards, he underwent a major shift, deconstructing the symmetry and harmony of his canvases, driven by the need to find his own artistic language.
A leading figure of contemporary art and a pioneer of performance art in Haiti, Mario Benjamin enjoys international renown. His artistic residencies have taken him to Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He regularly represents Haiti at numerous prestigious biennials, including Johannesburg in South Africa (1997), Havana in Cuba (1997), Venice in Italy (2001), Gwangju in South Korea (2008), and Dakar in Senegal (2010). In 2016, he took part in the TRANS touring project, organized by Maison Revue Noire.
In 2015, he took part in the inauguration of the Mémorial ACTe in Guadeloupe. His artwork depicting Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe is part of the museum’s permanent collection in Pointe-à-Pitre.
While continuing his career as a painter, Mario Benjamin creates numerous installations incorporating a range of media: painting, collage, sculpture, photography, scenography, and more. He blends these techniques one by one, according to the scale of his deconstructions. Although his installations are created using new media, they remain rooted in tradition. What matters is not the materials he uses, but the way he harnesses them to express the forces that inhabit him.
Mario Benjamin is actively involved in various projects aimed at revitalizing the Centre d’Art and its educational programs.
He lives and works in Haiti.
Some of the works by Mario Benjamin
100 plexiglass sheets (1m x 1m), wooden support structures, microphones, direct sounds, soundtracks, interactive sound-light fixtures, variable dimensions. Photo © DR, Sound Engineer: Todor Todoroff, Brussels, Belgium.
Museum du Botanique de Bruxelles Belgium, 2010
