Haïti

"André Pierre, a naïve painter inspired by voodoo, himself a houngan, singlehandedly makes up a manifesto. He has borrowed Rimbaud’s palette, and his color blends compose words. Each of his paintings is a poem that merits being delivered with a recording on tape. For painting, you see, has nothing to do with beauty, but 'should speak goodness.' André Pierre is a wonderful storyteller. My artist friends, Jean Gérard and Sergine, accompanied me to visit the old master. Under the studio’s arbor, Clairin was passed around and kept our little band in perfectly high spirits. André Pierre is very inspired today. You have to admit that Sergine is probably the most gorgeous product of the country’s artistic heritage in recent years.

He’s hyped up. Paintings keep on parading past on the four shoddy planks of wood that serve as an easel. Every time, we’re treated to a short sonnet-length rhyme with a surprise ending, interrupted by trips to the storeroom to bring new works back to us. I’ve never heard voodoo being described in such a merry manner.
'Have you ever seen the devil’s true face?'
No, none of us has ever seen him. What’s he going to come up with next?
He ducks back into his storeroom and reemerges with a lopsided smile, but, to our great surprise, without a painting in sight. He plumps down in front of us, and after putting his hand in his pocket, he throws, into the dust at our feet… a handful of coins.
'There’s the true face of Satan!'"

Extract from Titouan en Haïti, 2003, Éditions Gallimard