HOMO SARGASSUM International Symposium
March 4-6, 2025
Museum of fine arts, florida state university
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2025 • DAY 1: UNDERSTANDING THE HOMO SARGASSUM
12:00pm.: Registration
Location: MoFA Lobby
01:00p.m.: Poetic Opening Performance by Louisa Marajo, read in English by Carine Schermann.
Location: MoFA Gallery 3
01:15 p.m.: Welcome Words
Location: Lower Gallery
- Martin Munro, Director of the Winthrop~King Institute For Contemporary French & Francophone Studies of Florida State University
- Louisa Marajo, Artist, HOMO SARGASSUM Initiator & Co~Author
- Vanessa Selk, TMAF Artistic Director and HOMO SARGASSUM Co~Author & Co~Curator
01:25 p.m.: Opening Remarks
- Tatiana Flores, President of the TMAF
01:40 p.m. ~ 01:50 p.m.: PhD FSU Candidate Focus
- Eva Mustian, on “An introduction to the Sargassum from a Science perspective.”
01:50 p.m. ~ 03:05 p.m.: Interactive Conversation • What is Sargassum? A French Antillean perspective on an invading oceanic creature.
Location: Lower Gallery
Description: From a natural habitat for marine life to a toxic threat and an artistic muse, the Sargassum seaweed is a multifaceted experience, depending on each living community. The ecological, social, and political impacts of the proliferation of the Sargassum seaweed since 2011 had particular repercussions in the French Antilles, where reactions were voiced from multiple fields, echoing the rhizomatic connection between all worlds, as following Edouard Glissant’s methodology of thought. This panel will study the cases related to Guadeloupe and Martinique to understand the very nature of the Sargassum seaweed (Dr. Sarra Gaspard), its public health, sociological and anthropological implications (Dr. Florence Ménez) as well as its artistic interpretation and potential philosophical meaning (Louisa Marajo and Nicolas Derné).
Moderated by Dr. Martin Munro, Director of the Winthrop~King Institute For Contemporary French & Francophone Studies
With:
- Dr. Sarra Gaspard, Chemist, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Université des Antilles
- Dr. Florence Ménez, Anthropologist, Department of Human Science, Université des Antilles, Université de Bretagne Occidentale
- Louisa Marajo, Multimedia Artist, Homo Sargassum Initiator
- Nicolas Derné, Photographer and Video Artist
03:05 p.m. ~ 03:45 p.m.: Exhibition Tour with Curators Vanessa Selk & Michael Carrasco
Location: MoFA Galleries
03:45 p.m. ~ 04:00 p.m.: Coffee Break
Location: MoFA Lobby
04:00 p.m. ~ 05:30 p.m.: Creative Workshop
- How to educate on ecological disasters through image, text and humor: Case study of the multidisciplinary comic book Sargassum: Stories of a Brown Tide.
Description: How to conceive, write and illustrate an educational comic book in a disaster context? How to narrate tragedies in a comic way? What is the role of Comic books in political and environmental contexts? Example of Sargassum: Stories of a Brown Tide, initiated and edited by Jessica Oublié.
Guided by Michelle Bumatay
With:
- Mora J. Beauchamp~Byrd, FSU, on representations of race, class and gender in American comics
- Henri Tauliaut, Artist and contributor to the Sargassum Comic Book
05:30 p.m. ~ 07:00 p.m.: HOMO SARGASSUM Film Screening
Location: MoFA, FAB 249
- Film followed by 20 min. Q&A with Vanessa Selk & Louisa Marajo, moderated by Nyasha Laing, writer and film critic
07:00 p.m. ~ 08:30 p.m.: Opening Reception
- Honoring Artist Edouard Duval~Carrié, Words by Dr. Martin Munro, in presence of Mireille Chancy-Gonzales (TBC)
- Location: MoFA Lobby
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2025 • DAY 2: OVERCOMING THE SARGASSUM TRAUMA AND MEMORY
09.00 a.m.: Welcome Coffee
Location: MoFA Lobby
09:30 a.m.: Keynote Speaker
- Valérie Loichot on the Unritual and Transatlantic Water Graves.
Location: MoFa Lower Gallery
10:15 a.m. ~ 11:30 a.m.: Interactive Conversation
- The Transatlantic journey of the Sargassum: echoing Caribbean History and Migrations.
Location: MoFa Lower Gallery
Description: Present in the Sargasso Sea as well as in the territorial waters of West Africa, the Sargassum started migrating in masses towards the Americas, carried by transatlantic currents. The traceable oceanic movements of the Sargassum do not only revive the memories of the Middle Passage and of a cultural homeland of the Caribbean, but also echo the more contemporary migrations from and within the Caribbean. Starting with a scientific analysis of the transatlantic journey of the sargassum through a dedicated tool called “Drifters” (Nicolas Wienders), this discussion will further share a historic perspective on the arrival of the Sargassum in the Americas and its creative interpretation from an immigrant artist’s point of view (Billy Gerard Frank), and examine the cultural heritage of the African diaspora in contemporary artistic practices in Puerto Rico, notably (Marina Reyes Franco).
Moderated by Dr. Mora J. Beauchamp~Byrd, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies at Florida State University.
With:
- Dr. Nicolas Wienders, Researcher, Center for Oceanic and Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University
- Billy Gerard Frank, Multimedia Artist, Photographer
- Marina Reyes Franco, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico
11:30 a.m. ~ 11:40 a.m.: PhD FSU Candidate Interactive Wrap Up
- Estefanía Vallejo Santiago on “Ancestral Landscapes Lab (ALL): Tracing Afro~Puerto Rican Experiences through Memory and Place.” ( TBC )
11:45 a.m. ~ 01:15 p.m.: Lunch Break
Location: MoFA Lobby
01:15 p.m. ~ 01:30 p.m.: Storyteller
- Chris Cyrille, Writer and exhibition storyteller, on the representations of colonial landscapes in the works of Minia Biabiany and Deborah Jack
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
01:30 p.m. ~ 02:30 p.m.: Beachside Chat
- The Ecocide of the Sargassum algae: how beach politics and colonial ecologies shape artistic and curatorial practices.
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
Description: The Sargassum quickly gained its reputation from asphyxiating marine life and releasing toxic gasses impacting humans. However, the proliferation of the Sargassum is a direct consequence of human pollution and neo-colonial agricultural practices impacting notably Caribbean communities and African diaspora. Through a lens of ecocriticism, this beachside chat will discuss the challenges of different curatorial and artistic practices among coastal cultures and communities confronted with environmental threats such as the proliferation of the sargassum seaweed and failing public policies in the insular and continental Caribbean.
Chat between Scholar /Curator…:
- Christina Peake, Scholar, Curator and Writer
…and Artists:
- Morel Doucet, Ceramist and Visual Artist
- Deborah Jack, Multimedia Artist
02:30 p.m. ~ 02:40 p.m.: PhD FSU Candidate Interactive Wrap Up by Libby Fowler Beegle
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
02:45 p.m. ~ 03:00 p.m.: Coffee Break
Location: MoFa Lobby
03:00 p.m. ~ 04:15 p.m.: Interactive Conversation
- Healing and Resisting with and through the Sargassum: exploring the use of the seaweed from ancestral and medicinal practices to contemporary ritualistic practices
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
Description: Today more often associated with toxicity, we have forgotten the positive virtues of the Sargassum seaweed. In some Caribbean traditions, seaweeds were often used in organic agriculture, animal husbandry and herbal medicine, as well as in the rituals of Afro~descendant peoples in the Caribbean. Today, we need to reconsider the internal and external use of the Sargassum algae, learn from ancestral and medicinal practices to reimagine our contemporary ritualistic practices to heal from our own scourge. After presenting the results of a local study on traditional external uses of the Sargassum seaweed among certain Caribbean communities (Marc-Alexandre Tareau), the conversation will look at how contemporary artistic practices integrate plants as a way of healing, survival or belonging (Dominique Hunter).
Moderated by Michael D. Carrasco, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine Arts and Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at the Florida State University
- Marc-Alexandre Tareau, Ethnobotanist
- Dominique Hunter, Visual Artist
04:15 p.m. ~ 04:45 p.m.: Plant Ritual
- Océanne Désir
Location: MoFA Courtyard
05:00 p.m.: Reception with Medhi Michalon, Sensory artist and Mixologist, offering a Seaweed plant-based non-alcoholic cocktail, introduced by Vanessa Selk.
Location: MoFA Lobby
06:00 p.m.: Dinner Buffet
Location: MoFA Lobby
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2025 • DAY 3: BECOMING THE HOMO SARGASSUM
09.15 a.m.: Welcome Coffee
Location: MoFA Lobby
09:45 a.m.: Keynote Speaker
- S. Ayesha Hameed on the Black Atlantic and its futuristic afterlives in oceanic environments (virtual pre-recorded participation)
10:10 a.m. ~ 10:25a.m.: Performed storytelling of her book “Mofwazé” by Gwladys Gambie
Location: MoFA Wansley Gallery
10:30 a.m. ~ 11:30 a.m.: Beachside Chat
- Sarga-morphosis: re-imagining Caribbean folklore and traditions through hybridity.
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
Description: From Manman Dlo or Mami Waters to the practice of “bain demarré,” the process of transformation/metamorphosis through the water for a Spiritual cleansing and rebirth has often been re~interpreted in the context of Sargassum or other marine creatures, giving birth to a series of new powerful feminine figures of Mama Sargassa or ManMan Chadwon or other hybrid creatures. After sharing perspectives on hybridity in Haitian folklore and carnival (Leah Gordon), this conversation will look at the figures of bestiality and transfiguration in the work of Ronald Cyrille and the emergence of futuristic beings uniting the underwater and cosmogonic world (Russell Watson).
Chat between Curator:
- Leah Gordon, Curator and Artist
and Artists:
- Ronald Cyrille, Visual Artist
- Russell Watson, Multimedia Artist
11:30 a.m. ~ 11:45 a.m.: PhD Candidate Interactive Wrap Up
- Carine Schermann, PhD Candidate on transformation /shape~shifting / beast~like figures across Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Timothy Lomeli, on the representations of Vodou as Poetics of Beings and transformations
11:45 a.m. ~ 01:00 p.m.: Lunch Break
Location: MoFA Lobby
01:00 p.m. ~ 02:30 p.m.: Creative Workshop
- How to think and create our second skins: merging technology and traditions towards an Afro~Carib futuristic aesthetic / fashion
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
Description: Sargassum seaweed has been explored by various tech industries, including textile for fashion. The collaboration between FELDER+FELDER and tech company Soarce on Sargassum-based pigments is an example of a sustainable creative alliance, offering new perspectives for the industry. In a more satiristic way, artists such as Henri Tauliaut have diverted fabric and traditional materials to challenge established perspectives of the ideas of Caribbean costumes, skins and beauty. Participants will focus on the process of creation of respective “second skins” and their meaning for the future of the Caribbean.
Guided by Annie Carlano, Senior Curator for craft, fashion and design at the MInt Museum, Charlotte, NC
With:
- Mason Mincey, Soarce Company
- Daniela & Annette FELDER+FELDER, eco-designer duo
- Henri Tauliaut, Multimedia Artist
02:30 p.m. ~ 02:55 p.m.: Performance “Acta non Verba” by Marielle Plaisir in FELDER+FELDER Sargassum Dress
Location: MoFA Gallery 3
03:00 p.m. ~ 03:15 p.m.: Coffee Break
Location: MoFA Lobby
03:15 p.m. ~ 04:45 p.m.: Creative Workshop
- Communicating with the Spirit of Mama Sargassa or HOMO SARGASSUM through sound and orality: perceiving, decodifying and speaking the language of the Ocean.
Location: MoFA Lower Gallery
Description: This last session is introducing HOMO SARGASSUM as a personified concept of invocation to speak to the Ocean. By becoming the HOMO SARGASSUM, we adopt a new body and oral language that allows us to not only understand and read Nature’s messages but also to dive back into the Ocean and breathe underwater again. Which are the sounds of the Ocean? How can our human orality translate and transmit them? Which role do Sargassum play in our communication with the Ocean and beyond?
Moderated by Martin Munro, Eminent Scholar and Director of the Winthrop-King Institute forFrench and Francophone Studies
With:
- Caecilia Tripp, Multimedia Artist and Filmmaker
- Mehdi Chalmers, PhD Candidate FSU
04:45 p.m. ~ 5:15 p.m.: Final Performance by Jean~Baptiste Herné, introduced by Caecilia Tripp.
05:15 p.m. ~ 05:30 p.m.: Closing Remarks
Location: MoFA Galleries
- Martin Munro, Director of WKI, FSU
- Kaylee Spencer / Michael Carrasco MoFA
- Vanessa Selk, TMAF Executive & Artistic Director
05:30 p.m. ~ 11:30 p.m.: Dinner & Party.
Location: MoFA Galleries