ARTMADA #3

We all come (artists, volunteers, visitors) from different places; and yet, during the festival, we are in the same place at the same time: on a wall, on an island, in the Caribbean, on the planet… A dot on a globe, and yet it is here and now that our paths cross. At the crossroads of paths, cultures and lives, where everything is possible.

But “O la nou kay?” Where are we going? Towards what? In which direction? And which path should we take to get there? The usual route? The shortcut? The diversion? The detour? The chimen chien (the side path)? The chimen krochi (the crooked path)? Will we have to clear our own way to reach our goal? More than the destination, isn't the journey what matters most?

In a time of social, military, climate and digital fatalism, is another way possible?

We chose an artistic world that was not really a career option back when we started painting. We took a different path from the classic, academic one taken by those who love art or painting.

We learned graffiti off the beaten track, without the recognition of critics or institutions. That path led us (back) to Clément, where we explored the idea that became the title of the exhibition Mawonaj Piktural: to break away, find a way out, escape the codes of the closed, cold and rigid world of contemporary art.

We chose to run away (marronner) through painting. To go where we wanted, we chose another way: one where walls are canvases, streets are galleries, and the city is a museum. And this stretch of road we travel together, this shared trace we leave behind, becomes another way for future generations.

Making Fort-de-France the hub of urban art, street art and graffiti in the Caribbean?

ARTMADA is run by Mada Paint, a collective of Martinican graffiti artists, through the NPL MADA PAINT association. The festival was born in 2024 with a simple idea: turn Fort-de-France into an open-air gallery, and give Caribbean artists walls worthy of their talent.