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Plastic Broken Chairs, Juxtaposed, 2019
in collaboration with Sandra Poulson 

this project operates as a land for discussion about the sociocultural and economic value of activities of informal nature within the city. whilst posing questions on the sometimes not obvious disparities between various layers of a particularly complex society. 

it touches on the relationship between different modes of informality, such as economies, building techniques, re-appropriation of Land by merchants and the exchange of informal currencies. as well as disentangles lack as a possible driving factor for such activities. “Plastic Broken Chairs, Juxtaposed” looks closely at the urban spaces as hobs for creative responses to the absence of living conditions, otherwise not supplied by the government and respective institutions. Giving a platform for the transferable knowledge and skills that have been at the centre of survival and self-reinvention amongst populations that build their own infrastructures.

the work materializes through photo documentation, video, text, textile print and beers in the best buteco (improvised bar) of Ilha de Luanda, which in contrast with some of the neighbouring luxury restaurants, consists on a drinks serving desk and two tables. there we met Sabina Esperança who showed us how to dance Angolan ‘quadradinho’ and told us stories about an ex-husband that died in the battlefield during Angola’s “civil” war(1975-2002). She disclosed to us her approach to dealing with her traumas and raising her 5 children by herself, as well as her sexual freedom, something that would be judged or side-eyed in another forum. differently from many of the women that we encountered in Luanda, Sabina did not wear any of the red dresses which alone shifted the language of the conversation, as it did not interfere with the already existing status quo of her body as a communicator.