Gonçalo Mabunda Mozambique, 1975

Présentation
Gonçalo Mabunda was born two years before the commencing of the bloody Mozambican civil war that divided the region for over 15 years and would forever shape his home country and artistic career. Drawing on his country's collective memory and political history, Mabunda works with deactivated weapons retrieved from this long and terrible war, such as rockets, land mines, AK47s, amongst other objects. He then transforms these weapons and war-related materials into furniture or sculptures of anthropomorphic forms, like masks or figures. These masks and figures, - created as an allusion to the local traditional African art and dances - assume a remarkable modernist aesthetic comparable to the images produced by Braque or Picasso.
 
In the series of imposing Thrones, for which the artist is most famous, Mabunda critically and ironically reflects on his personal childhood experience amongst the violence of the civil war. By combining tribal symbols, artifacts traditionally associated with power, and the weapons used during the war, these Thrones bear solid political connotations and the notion of the transformative power of art.
 
Œuvres
  • O Anotador e o Labirinto
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O Anotador e o Labirinto, 2021
    Decommissioned weapons, metal and welding
    88 x 65 x 12 cm
  • O Anuviador da Mente
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O Anuviador da Mente, 2020
    Decommissioned weapons and scrap metal
    60 x 40 x 16 cm
  • O Desdobrador do Destino
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O Desdobrador do Destino, 2021
    Decommissioned weapons and scrap metal
    105 x 50 x 17 cm
  • O dono dos poetas
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O dono dos poetas, 2019
    Welding on obsolete weapons
    150 x 60 x 30 cm
  • O Homem do Azul Amarelado / The Man in Yellowish Blue
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O Homem do Azul Amarelado / The Man in Yellowish Blue, 2022
    Decommissioned weapons and scrap metal
    80 x 50 x 23 cm
    Vendu
  • O insubstituível vermelho / The irreplaceable red
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O insubstituível vermelho / The irreplaceable red, 2022
    Decommissioned weapons and scrap metal
    66x48x20 cm
    Vendu
  • O Jesus e o futuro
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    O Jesus e o futuro , 2019
    Decommissioned weapons, metal and welding
    210 x 150 x 25 cm
  • Os caminhantes da Cor
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    Os caminhantes da Cor, 2022
    Decommissioned weapons, metal and welding
    160 x 76 x 15 cm
  • Untitled
    Gonçalo Mabunda
    Untitled, 2018
    Welding on obsolete weapons
    88 x 62 x 28 cm
Expositions
Foires
Presse
Vidéo