In Conversation with Olivier Marboeuf

Abstract

Olivier Marboeuf is a writer, performer, independent curator and film producer of Caribbean origin. He founded the independent art centre Espace Khiasma, which he ran from 2004 to 2018, in Les Lilas on the outskirts of Paris. At Khiasma, he developed a program addressing minority representation through exhibitions, screenings, debates, performances and collaborative projects across the North-East of Paris. He is an educator and has taught visual arts in several European Fine Art schools. He is a member of the cinema and performance collective ‘The Living and The Dead Ensemble’ and recently presented, as an artist, the first part of his sonic collective project ‘The Museum of Breath’ in the context of the Berlin Biennale 12. He currently produces films within Spectre Productions, a production company he founded in 2013 in Rennes (France). In 2022, Marboeuf published the collection of essays, “Suites décoloniales: s’enfuir de la plantation” (Decolonial Suites: Fleeing from the Plantation) as well as the poetry book “Les matières de la nuit” (Matters of the Night) (both published by Éditions du commun, Rennes, France). In 2023, two new books will be published: L’emeutier et la sorcière’ (The Rioter and the Witch) in French and Vers un cinéma déparlant (une hypothèse caraïbe) (Towards a De-speaking Cinema: A Caribbean Hypothesis) in French, English, German and Spanish. Many of his texts are available to read on his blog, Toujours Debout.

Notes

1 Achille Mbembe, “Necropolitics,” Raisons Politiques 21:1 (2006): 29–60.

2 “Towards a despeaking cinema (a Caribbean hypothesis),” Open City Documentary Festival, accessed November 27, 2023, https://opencitylondon.com/non-fiction/issue-3-space/towards-a-de-speaking-cinema1-a-caribbean-hypothesis/.

3 Sylvia Wynter, “Novel and History, Plot and Plantation,” Savacou 5:1 (1971): 95–102.

4 AF-flux Biennale (November 2023 - March 2024). https://www.affluxbiennale.org/.