Selected as part of the first cohort of MansA Lab, Bazaart is a collective and collaborative space dedicated to creative exchange. Based in Guadeloupe, the project aims to foster connections, collaborations, and the exchange of ideas between the Caribbean and other regions.
By Selma Chougar
Published on February 17, 2026
They come from different backgrounds, but share a common root: Guadeloupe. Seated around the table are women whose paths have crossed without ever being quite alike—a web developer, an artist-researcher, a producer, and an entrepreneur. Together, they’ve created Bazaart, a collective project born out of a need: to envision sustainable spaces for collaboration among stakeholders in Caribbean culture.
Bazaart aims to build bridges between artists, organizations, institutions, and artisans in order to foster synergies, the sharing of experiences, and the pooling of resources. The project thus serves as a tool to support the development of the cultural sector in the Caribbean region.
Today, it is a multidisciplinary arts hub, based in Guadeloupe and open to the international community. It is a hybrid project—both a physical space in the making and a digital platform under construction—conceived as a space for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the advancement of artistic careers. Here, culture knows no boundaries: visual arts, music, film, and research engage in dialogue without hierarchy.
The collective’s history began long before it had a name. Some of its members met through Mabouica, a Guadeloupean collective that organized festivals and events blending alternative music, dance, and visual arts. The pandemic put a halt to these initiatives, but not to the collective’s momentum. This passion for alternative and hybrid forms remains embedded in the project’s DNA.
Launched in 2005, the project initially focused on cultural exchanges between Guadeloupe and Côte d’Ivoire. Revived and reimagined in 2024, it underwent a transformation and was collectively restructured with a single goal: to break cultural entrepreneurs out of their isolation and build sustainable, inclusive, and enduring tools.
Today, the project is moving forward in phases. These include artist residencies and exhibitions in Guadeloupe and abroad, the development of collectives, the production of audiovisual works, support for cultural projects, and reflection on “third places” capable of bridging the gap between regions. Each of these elements is designed to provide concrete responses to realities that are often overlooked.
With support from the MansA Lab incubator, the team decided to slow down in order to better organize itself. “Build, deconstruct, rebuild,” they say. Far from the urgency of one-off events, Bazaart now champions the long-term approach—one that allows projects to take root and artists to no longer have to move forward alone.
More than just a place or a building, Bazaart sees itself as a shared space—a crossroads between the Caribbean and the rest of the world. It is a tool for circulating stories, memories, works of art, and people. And perhaps, above all, it is a way of reminding us that art is never merely a side note, but a force for connection and transformation.
