DESECRATION OF EMPIRE

FIGURA AXIAL
Capela da Boa Viagem

May-July 2023
Funchal, Madeira Island

Solo show and concert curated by Hélder Folgado

The exhibition focuses on a compost pile made from the products and byproducts of the cash crops, which have shaped the economic and ecological history of Madeira: timber, wheat, sugar, and wine.

To create the pile, materials were collected from various points on the island: bagasse, molasses, and crushed sugarcane; dryland cereals, straw and hay; trunks, branches, wood chips, sawdust, and wood chips; grape stalks, pruning waste, and vine stocks.

A slide projector shows historical images (19th and 20th centuries) of plantation work on the island of Madeira, from harvesting to transportation through to the final product. Interspersed with these images are microscopic images of the soils beneath the same crops still grown in Madeira today.

The sound piece echoing inside the chapel includes excerpts from Madeiran work songs performed during planting and harvest times and a sonic translation of the biochemical evolution of the composting process. Headphones make the visitors able to choose whether or not they want to listen to a verbal explanation of the piece's evolution.

This was reinterpreted in concert form as the opening of the Aleste festival.

The work is accompanied by a publication with an essay by Jason W. Moore, "King Sugar and the Composts of Empire: Land, Labor, and the Origins of Cheap Nature on the Island of Madeira".

Cabeceiras de Basto

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