Create Your First Project
Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started
12th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo · CCSP
Date
2019
Location
Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil
About
Presented at the XII Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo: Construir o Cotidiano [Building the Everyday], the installation reconstructs a day in the life of the babassu breakers of Boa Vista, Maranhão, in the Zona dos Cocais, a transition between the Amazon, the Cerrado and the Caatinga. Recorded audio accompanies the women's routine through six moments: the path, the gathering of nuts, the gathering of charcoal, the pause for lunch, the breaking, and the return. Across the floor, 120kg of coconuts, the amount one breaker gathers and cracks in two days of work, are stamped and numbered, available to visitors in exchange for a contribution sent back to the women, whose craft is recognised as intangible heritage in Brazil. As each coconut is lifted, a thin line of earth is revealed beneath it, rotating with every row to trace the path of the sun across the day.
Photographs © German Nieva
