SÃO OS QUE COMEM
Mixed media / Variable dimensions
Bienal Internacional de Arte de Cerveira, Portugal, 2017
QUEM INVENTOU A FOMEMixed media
2017
QUEM INVENTOU A FOME
Mixed media
2017
COBIÇA
Mixed media
2017
ABOUT THE WORK:
The piece consists of a sentence, two versions of a portrait, and a reproduction of a classical painting depicting an exuberant table of fruits and vegetables. The assemblage weaves the thoughts of a writer, a politician and an artist discussing hunger and food, each in their own way, considering the historical period they lived in. The individuals are the writer Carolina de Jesus (1914-1977), former president Lula da Silva, and Albert Eckhart (c.1610–1665), a Dutch painter who travelled to Brazil in the entourage of governor Maurits van Nassau, in the 17th century. For 24 years, the head of the Dutch venture in the Northeast of Brazil, Van Nassau was a sophisticated man who recognized as crucial having the finest painters with him, whose mission was to depict the Dutch colonial triumph to be exhibited in Europe. Eckhout was the most brilliant among them all.
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Carolina de Jesus wrote the line which entitles this work - “Who invented hunger are those who eat” -, in 1959, while living in a state of extreme poverty and hunger. A black woman who rose from the Brazilian favelas to become a successful author, Carolina has become a symbol of Brazilian inequality, exposing the misery to which a great part of the population, as well as her own, was subjected. Forty years ahead, her words were echoed by former President Lula da Silva, in his inauguration speech, in 2003, in the occasion of his first turn, when he stated that his dream was for every Brazilian to be able to eat three meals a day. As a child, Lula experienced poverty and hunger, alongside his family, while living in one of the most impoverished regions of Brazil.
The result of centuries of colonial exploitation, based on slave labour, has led to significant class inequality in Brazil. Nevertheless, during the thirteen years of leftist rule, the nation has witnessed a rise in income distribution and a reduction in inequality, resulting in 45 million people emerging from poverty, thereby fulfilling Lula’s dream. However, in 2016, "those who eat" (the colonialist financing ruling class) conspired, by means of a coup d’état, to reinvent hunger. The deposition of democratically elected Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s sussessor, hauled the country into chaos, obscurity and fascism, fostering its pillage by the international capitalism.
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This project aims to explore the contradiction between the potency and abundance of Brazilian natural resources and the persistent disorder and injustice characteristic of colonized nations and their struggle for genuine independence. The installation generates a potential dialogue between Eckhout’s the exuberant still-lives while remembering the enduring lust for the abundance of the fruits of earth by the imperialistic nations, throughout history. The cornucopia of the fruits of the earth sensually represented by the Dutch artist is both the dream of the former president and the paradox of Brazil.
***
The piece consists of a sentence, two versions of a portrait, and a reproduction of a classical painting depicting an exuberant table of fruits and vegetables. The assemblage weaves the thoughts of a writer, a politician and an artist discussing hunger and food, each in their own way, considering the historical period they lived in. The individuals are the writer Carolina de Jesus (1914-1977), former president Lula da Silva, and Albert Eckhart (c.1610–1665), a Dutch painter who travelled to Brazil in the entourage of governor Maurits van Nassau, in the 17th century. For 24 years, the head of the Dutch venture in the Northeast of Brazil, Van Nassau was a sophisticated man who recognized as crucial having the finest painters with him, whose mission was to depict the Dutch colonial triumph to be exhibited in Europe. Eckhout was the most brilliant among them all.
***
Carolina de Jesus wrote the line which entitles this work - “Who invented hunger are those who eat” -, in 1959, while living in a state of extreme poverty and hunger. A black woman who rose from the Brazilian favelas to become a successful author, Carolina has become a symbol of Brazilian inequality, exposing the misery to which a great part of the population, as well as her own, was subjected. Forty years ahead, her words were echoed by former President Lula da Silva, in his inauguration speech, in 2003, in the occasion of his first turn, when he stated that his dream was for every Brazilian to be able to eat three meals a day. As a child, Lula experienced poverty and hunger, alongside his family, while living in one of the most impoverished regions of Brazil.
The result of centuries of colonial exploitation, based on slave labour, has led to significant class inequality in Brazil. Nevertheless, during the thirteen years of leftist rule, the nation has witnessed a rise in income distribution and a reduction in inequality, resulting in 45 million people emerging from poverty, thereby fulfilling Lula’s dream. However, in 2016, "those who eat" (the colonialist financing ruling class) conspired, by means of a coup d’état, to reinvent hunger. The deposition of democratically elected Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s sussessor, hauled the country into chaos, obscurity and fascism, fostering its pillage by the international capitalism.
***
This project aims to explore the contradiction between the potency and abundance of Brazilian natural resources and the persistent disorder and injustice characteristic of colonized nations and their struggle for genuine independence. The installation generates a potential dialogue between Eckhout’s the exuberant still-lives while remembering the enduring lust for the abundance of the fruits of earth by the imperialistic nations, throughout history. The cornucopia of the fruits of the earth sensually represented by the Dutch artist is both the dream of the former president and the paradox of Brazil.
***