Memories to 14 Busts
At the botanical garden in Belem, Lisbon, there are 14 bronze busts, once created for the 1940 exhibition of Portuguese World, to adorn a human zoo and to exemplify what the dictator regime considered “the species” of the portuguese ex colonies. Memories to 14 Busts is a project that demands a contextualization of the 14 busts, that sit today at Belem’s botanical garden; disrupts their trophy iconography and paves the way to embed alternative memories os peoples that live today in the city. The drawings are made on Capulana african fabric, as the artist consider them to be an african archival technology. The drawings of the busts are intertwined with blue cobalt painting depicting several episodes of memory from distinct communities living in the city.