Clement Foundation
One of Martinique’s older cultural organisations, the Fondation Clément has been sponsoring exhibitions and publications since the 1990s. Its involvement with contemporary art centers around the Habitation Clément, a 19th century sugarcane plantation and rum distillery that is still fully functioning today, but was adapted by the Fondation in 1996 to incorporate three large exhibition spaces. These are designed to provide an exciting and liberating venue for Francophone artists who feel isolated from the current contemporary art scene, either because they live far away from its principal centers, or because their racial or cultural background makes them feel different to their peers.
Two of the exhibition spaces (La Case à Lucie and La Cuverie) hold temporary solo exhibitions by artists working in various media, from October until June each year; some recent highlights include photographer Philippe Virapin’s Insomnie (a series of haunting images exploring our ideas of night-time) and Richard-Viktor Sainsily Cayol’s Rhizomes hybrides ou la poïétique d’un syncrétisme, consisting of paintings on the complex mix of nationalities that form the Caribbean people. The third space, La Case à Léo, features changing displays from the Fondation’s permanent art collection.