“Martinique, Intimate Cartographies” at the Wall House Museum in Saint Barth

"Presented from May 9 to August 1, 2026, the exhibition “Martinique, Intimate Cartographies” brings together Martinican artists who tell the story of their island through memories, reflections, commitments and imagination. Curated by Karine Taïlamé, the exhibition explores different ways of feeling, inhabiting and loving Martinique through the works on display at the Wall House Museum." By Agnès Monlouis-Félicité

How can Martinique be portrayed without reducing it to a postcard image, a landscape, or a collection of geographical landmarks? This is the challenge taken up by “Martinique, Intimate Cartographies”, on view at the Wall House Museum in Saint Barthélemy from May 9 to August 1, 2026. Curated by artist Karine Taïlamé, the exhibition brings together twenty-five creators whose works form a sensitive journey through the island, shaped by memory, lived experience and personal narratives. This diversity is the exhibition’s greatest strength. “To propose an intimate cartography is to reject a single reading of the Territory. Martinique is envisioned as a multifaceted narrative nourished by Amerindian, African, Indian, Chinese and European cultures,” explains the curator. The selection includes major figures of Martinican and Caribbean contemporary art. Victor Anicet’s caravels reflect on historical legacies. Carole Assier de Pompignan’s underwater photographs reveal the richness of Martinique’s marine environment. Jocelyne Béroard presents, for the first time, a photographic work dedicated to Jacob Desvarieux. Other artists explore themes of femininity, transmission, the body and humanity’s relationship with the living world. The project took two years to develop. At the heart of its conception lies a caladium leaf. With its shifting colours and contrasting veins, this tropical plant—sometimes referred to as “the painter’s palette”—became the exhibition’s emblem. “Through it, one discovers the map of Martinique, crossed by all these singularities,” says Karine Taïlamé. The exhibition design echoes the pattern of its veins. As visitors move through the galleries, they encounter different forms of cartography—historical, geographical, psychological and ecological—revealing the many facets of Martinique. While Karine Taïlamé conceived the exhibition, she also participated as one of its artists. Trained at the Ateliers de Sèvres in Paris, the École des Beaux-Arts de Martinique, Villa Arson in Nice and the Haute École de Joaillerie in Aix-en-Provence, she has spent more than twenty years developing a practice centred on memory, territory and the living world. Her work presented at the Wall House focuses on Martinique’s medicinal plants and the ancestral knowledge associated with them. “Like Hitchcock, I make an appearance in this exhibition,” she says with a smile. “From the intimate to the collective, I enjoy moving beyond my own subjectivity in order to welcome other voices.” For Karine Taïlamé, the stakes go far beyond artistic discovery. “Above all, I hope visitors will be touched at a deeply emotional level.” She also hopes that audiences will discover a lesser- known Martinique, shaped by personal stories, symbols and emotions. Saint Barth may well be the first port of call for an exhibition that shares the intimate riches of Martinique with a wider audience.