Past & Present — Unfolding Narratives in the Pacific

Pacifique(S) Contemporain, a collective of lecturers and curators passionate about the Pacific and its arts organised the conference Past & Present – Unfolding Narratives in the Pacific in June 2021 at Université Le Havre Normandie. This was the second international conference: it was preceded by Pacifique(S) Contemporain in 2015. Pacifique(S) Contemporain was created by Jacqueline Charles-Rault and Caroline Vercoe with the aim of bringing together contemporary artists from the Pacific to exhibit together in France. The theme Past & Present – Unfolding Narratives in the Pacific was intended to be understood in its broadest meaning. It encouraged artists, curators and academics to explore, reveal, unveil, disclose and unravel narratives conceived of in the past offering layers of understanding and perceiving them in the present. The association of the two words, unfolding narratives, inspired us to assemble four thematics that would allow researchers from a variety of fields to come together and explore and evoke narratives in and concerned with the Pacific.