This award, according to a statement sent to VerAngola, places the gallery in "ex aequo" with the Turkish gallery The Pill, as the best stand of this section in the fair.
"Hope As A Praxis," according to the note, "investigates the use and symbolism of plastic chairs known as 'waiting condition' and reflects on responses to the broken object that is juxtaposed with another broken chair."
This project focuses on the "practice of continued hope as an essential resource for survival, in a sociocultural and historical context where planning for the long term is still a central challenge."
This installation is composed of "17 iterations of chairs in the process of breaking," the note indicates.
This installation is also an acknowledgement of the "central feeling that connects the present and the future - hope - and how this hope is practiced as the individual looks forward to a better reality."
Sandra Poulson, quoted in the note, indicates that as Angolans, the future has always been about creating where there is, where there is not enough. "Perhaps it is a reaction to the collective feeling that the infrastructure is not strong enough, or perhaps it does not exist, just as plastic chairs are ephemeral in their original form, so are they permanently in their broken form. Perhaps part of understanding future directions is learning together to juxtapose broken chairs and make another much stronger one," he indicated.
In turn, the installation "How To Make Mud Cake" shows how the "forced migration of the 32nd Battalion from Angola to South Africa has a physical and spiritual impact on the struggle for land."
According to the note, "the analogy is made with the post-colonial era, the repercussions of an independent Angola and the idea of freedom."
"Helena's performance commonly features a machete as a prop. It is a statement that delineates the duality of the object, the domesticity and danger it represents. In African homes, it is functional in cooking, cutting food, or doing chores. On the other hand, it can be violent, the sharpness is dangerous even fatal, it can be used as a weapon, but often this utility is vulgarized," indicates the statement.
The gallery, through its exhibition program, aims to promote dialogue and critical thinking around visual artistic expression in Luanda.
