Max G. Beauvoir, Houngan Asogwe, Le Peristyle De Mariani, Haiti, 2012

.........................................................................

A clip from an upcoming film by Joyce Ip, Roberto N Peyre and Jason Metcalf, 2012.

OKIPASYON OKIPASYON is a short film (currently in post-production) that was shot during and as a project of the 2nd Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in December 2011. The piece is a collaboration between Joyce Ip, Roberto Peyre, and Jason Metcalf. The film investigates the notion of "occupation" in relation to contemporary Haitian life, and was born out of a dialogue surrounding the global Occupy movement. The film reveals that in Haiti, the term "okipasyon" is multiplicitous in meaning and includes - although is not limited to - the occupation of hundreds of thousands of Haitians in tents throughout Port-au-Prince and around the country, the past and present occupation of foreign military forces, occupation (or lack thereof) of a job, occupation in terms of Vodou Lwa spirit possession, and occupation of the grave by hundreds of thousands who lost their lives in the earthquake, among others. As part of the project OKIPASYON and alongside the film project, a graphic profile and poster campaign was created. It was designed, produced and distributed on the facades of Port au Prince. The posters texts were made to negotiate and calibrate multiple notions of Occupation and thus emphasise ambivalence and diversity of readings. Some of the poster layouts were also created as anagrams/hexagrams of the word OKIPASYON.

Photo: Benjamin Lowy

WHAT’S YOUR OCCUPATION? KI OKIPASYON OU? CUAL ES TU OCUPACION? QUELLE EST TON OCCUPATION?