Walgens Pierre Jean and Patrick Lafontant, two young Haitian painters, have good reason to be proud. Their works, large paintings on the theme of reconstruction, are currently on display at the Musée du Pantheon National Museum in Port-au-Prince.
As soon as the members of the joint CCCB-Development and Peace solidarity mission arrived in Port-au-Prince, they hurried over to the museum to meet the two artists and see the 24 paintings in the exhibition. The initiative for this exhibition came from APROSIFA, the Association to Promote Integral Family Health, an organization supported by Development and Peace working in the slums situated on the slopes of Morne de l’Hôpital, a hill that overlooks Port-au-Prince. For fifteen years, the organization has been forging links among families in the community and has built an extensive community network operating in the fields of health and economic development.
As Lody Auguste, the organization’s coordinator, puts it, the children of these families, traumatized by the January 12, 2010 earthquake, find at APROSIFA a space where they can “discover their potential.” There they find workshops on arts and crafts, percussions and the recycling of plastic waste. Reconstruction is an art.
Valdimir Pascal, Rétroviseur sociale de la reconstruction (Social Rear-view Mirror on Reconstruction), acrylic on canvas.
Walgens Pierre Jean, Haïti dans mes rêves (Haiti in My Dreams), acrylic on canvas.
Patrick Lafontant, À l’heure de la reconstruction (In the Era of Reconstruction), acrylic on canvas.
