Maksaens Denis
1968 | Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Lives in Port-au-Prince and Paris
Visual artist with a degree in audiovisual at the École Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle (ESRA), Paris. He works mainly with video, video installation, video sculpture, photography and performance, in recordings made not only in Haiti, but also in Cuba, South Africa and Senegal, among other countries. He is recognized for his activism in approaching the dramatic context of the lives of Haitians, with themes related to spirituality and the LGBTQIA+ community. In a collaborative practice with other artists, poets and dancers, he also presents an aesthetic inspired by the world of electronic music. He has recently received the grand prize of the OVNi Festival, Nice, France (2021). He has taken part in exhibitions around the world, including the biennials of Venice, Italy (2005); Dakar, Senegal (2010); Havana, Cuba (2011); and the Bienal del Sur, Caracas, Venezuela (2016). He lives between Port-au-Prince and Paris.
Mes rêves / My Dreams, 2021
Video, 20'33
In the video, Denis takes us on a journey between dream fantasies, anguished dreams, and found footage portraying scenes of violence and protest in the streets of Port-au-Prince. In the Haitian context, exposing the Black male nude figure is considered provocative, as it is particularly taboo. As always, Denis places the focus on a subject that touches and preoccupies him: the presence and historical resonances of the Black body. Mes Rêves exposes the body’s fraught relationship with urban space and executive force, and in a revolving juxtaposition of the geographical versus the corporeal invites us to work our way through a phantasmagorical picture of the history of violence, oppression, deprivation, and self-centered gluttony and greed.