AFRICAN WOMAN TEACHES EUROPEAN ARTISTS HOW TO CARRY HEAVY LOADS ON HER HEAD

2011

 

 

Video performance

.the result of the moment when in Uganda I hired a banana seller to teach me how to carry burdens on my head. It is part of a block of similar works in which I explore the problematics of global capitalism, information era, its environmental and social sustainability issues.

The current circumstances leave each of us in uncertainty within a world where the basic features of life in community and capacity for dialogue are endangered, due a fragile state of relations, not to say the loss of ideal categories such as happiness, equality and freedom.

By comparing the African woman professional activity to mine, I bring about questions of labour conditions, wealth distribution and opportunities, adding a sense of transformation, in this case by the act of teaching and learning, as another example of exchange and dialogue that can lead us to a better understanding of realities, a fairer management of their resources, and our proximity to others. This is often made by fiction, as it is done by life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

later on, I listened to someone dear talking about Lisbon’s fishwives who used to carry the fish in the same way, on the top of their heads. I thought then, without any kind of saudades, that such knowledge was put out of practice, or service if you prefer. So I emerged myself in a pointless research on the crimes of murderers of fishwives in the early 20th century in the same city. It did not make sense in the new world anymore. But then, it was there again. Someone carrying visible loads in the head. That is another kind of net.

 

 

 

 

this is almost fiction.

I have learn that disappointment can be a major event.