Meet Sasha Huber (Expo Haïti- Grand Palais)

My interview of Sasha Huber for IAM Magazine.

Mon entretien avec l’artiste Sasha Huber pour IAM Magazine.

“Haïti Chérie” (2010-2011) – Installation vidéo, 6’10’’ Helsinki, collection de l’artiste. © Sasha Huber

IAM: Three of your works are shown in Haïti, deux siècles de création artistique: The video installation “Haïti Chérie” (2010-11) refers to the terrible earthquake of 2010 while the two portraits of Duvalier father and son from the “Shooting Back (Riposter)” series (2004) – made with a semi-automatic stapling gun, are evidences of the era of dictatorship in Haiti. Through your artistic process, how did you deal with the idea of violence on which these works are based?

Sasha Huber : Both projects came to me though a series of strong emotions and the need to react artistically became clear to me. For instance “Shooting Back (Riposter)” (2004) was a reaction about not being allowed to visit Haiti due to my mother’s fear that something bad could happen to me . Afterall we’ve had two kidnappings in our family. I was born in Zurich (CH) where my father comes from and we visited Haiti only once together in the 1980s. That made me think about the origins of Haiti’s troubles and what happened during the time my family was directly affected by the dictatorship. This project was the first time that I used the staple gun and I did shot not only portraits of the Duvalier’s but also of the conqueror Christopher Columbus as a symbol of when the troubles started. The stapling gun was used as a symbolic weapon to literally shoot back.

In the case of the “Haïti Chérie” (2010-11) intervention that I made after the devastating earthquake, I found a way to show how I felt. The shock was so big and I felt so helpless and sad about this tragedy happening so far away from where I was at that moment. The snow angels, who symbolize my mourning, the lost lives, my solidarity and hope, were created on the snow covered Baltic Sea as connecting element to Haiti. And in 2011, when I finally returned to Haiti, the first time in 27 years, I was grateful that the video was screened to the public during the 2nd Ghetto Biennale at the Grand rue in Port-au-Prince. I was there with my artist husband Petri Saarikko and our baby boy Basil to finally meet my family that, at the time, decided to remain in Haiti.
Part of the “Haïti Chérie” project are the solidarity ribbons in the Haitian colors – red and blue. Those ribbons I gave to friends around the world and who wanted to show their solidarity in 2010. For the Haiti exhibition in Paris, my mother made over 4000 ribbons to give away during the opening ceremony.