Henri Tauliaut

It is through the work Water Divinity Game, that I chose to introduce to the public, here and around the world, the beauty of our cultures and religions. These certainly originated in the Caribbean basin, but they are above all major parts of a spiritual and ancestral memory essential for the construction of our inward focusing future. This work materializes the hope that our cultures inspire us as well as others.

Water Divinity Game is an interactive and immersive video game and installation created between 2020 and 2022. The player is positioned on a slightly elevated platform where there is a joystick on a stand that allows him to move in the virtual space. The video game is projected on a giant screen facilitating the immersion of the player. In this way, I use the playful and dynamic approach, characteristic of video games, so that the spectators meet, through the adventures of the players, the Afro-Caribbean aquatic divinities, and in doing so, adopting a detached perspective, without fear or prejudice.

In this work, the players enter the heart of the Haitian pantheon and meet representations of Loas such as Papa Legba, Damballa, Aida Wedo, Simbi, and the Mermaid in the first level of the game. In the second level, which takes place underwater, players are led on a quest to discover the Vévé of secrets hiding in space. They find the ship Immamou, of the ocean god Agwe, to take them there.

Henri Tauliaut 2022