Autoimmune

"GEDE VIZYON" takes its viewer on an unusual tour of the Grand Cemetery of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. While exploring the material and immaterial intricacies of the cultural, spiritual and historical space that is the cemetery, the camera takes on a life of its own. Running amok in the labyrinthine structure of its environment, it captures evocative sounds and images on its erratic voyage.

Generative AI inherits the same political and epistemological infrastructures that regulate bodies, borders and viral life. Working inside these systems, the piece confronts the inability of commercial image models to imagine the HIV epidemic unfolding across the US/Mexico borderlands, where the virus disproportionately affects Hispanic and Latino communities through overlapping regimes of migration, healthcare, surveillance and state violence. Their refusals, distortions and hallucinations become the material of the work. These synthetic images circulate through custom audiovisual software where recursive processing transforms computational failure into an unstable field of contamination, desire and sensation.

Haitian artist and activist Sanba Yonel creates a queer tribute to the Lwa, Vodou gods and goddesses who once inspired a revolution. In Haiti, men perceived as feminine are known as masisi. The word is often used as a slur on gay men, transvestites and non-binary folks. Sanba Yonel comments on the plight of the masisi who, faced with prejudice and hostility, find shelter in the religious context of Vodou.

In a fictitious country, the newly elected president and first lady are faced with supernatural powers that put their love to the test.