The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) inaugurated Ghetto Biennale with Spectres of History (2025), a compelling exhibition by Haitian artist collective Atis Rezistans, under its Invitations Programme on February 13 at St Andrews Parish Hall, Fort Kochi. The opening was followed by a high tea, drawing an audience of artists, curators, and art enthusiasts.
The exhibition brings to India the visceral art of Atis Rezistans, a dynamic collective from the Grand Rue neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Comprising both seasoned and emerging artists, the group is renowned for transforming discarded materials like engine parts, motherboards, wood scraps, TV casings, and even medical detritus into elaborate sculptural assemblages.
Rooted in Haiti’s Vodou traditions, African heritage, and revolutionary history, their works reveal how storytelling, spirituality, and social commentary merge in a single visual rhythm. Everyday waste becomes both medium and metaphor: bike tyres form wings, pistons turn phallic, springs morph into ribs—forming surreal figures that inhabit the wreckage of globalisation. Some pieces incorporate human bones, honouring the ancestral practices central to Haitian Vodou, where the living and the dead coexist in fluid worlds.
Through Spectres of History, Atis Rezistans reflects on the enduring agency of the Haitian Revolution, challenging Western art hierarchies while foregrounding knowledge systems of Haitian majority cultures. Their aesthetic of resistance also questions the notions of material value and artistic legitimacy within global art circuits.
Formed as a grassroots response to international mobility barriers faced by majority-class Haitian artists, Atis Rezistans launched the first Ghetto Biennale in 2009. The Biennale issues open calls to artists from around the world, inviting them to collaborate in Port-au-Prince, transforming marginalised neighbourhoods into transcultural creative platforms. Over the past twelve years, it has hosted more than 300 international artists, fostering deep exchanges and experimental collaborations that defy conventional art-world boundaries.
With Ghetto Biennale with Spectres of History (2025), the Kochi Biennale Foundation continues its mission to create space for radical and diverse artistic voices, enabling global dialogues on culture, identity, and power.
Image credit: Visitors viewing Spectres of History (2025) by Atis Rezistans, Ghetto Biennale, the Invitations Programme of Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) in St Andrews’ Parish Hall, Fort Kochi opened on February 13. The exhibition features artists from the Grand Rue neighbourhood of downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti; along with collaborative works of Ghetto Biennale.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
