Curfew
2013-2014
Installation, 157 x 170 x 120 cm.
Materials: wood, metal net, plaster, terracotta, paint, glass, metal table
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK7831_M526).
The work Curfew is based on a similar sculpture made by the Luena tribes of Dundo in what is now north-eastern Angola. The work and its title reflect two of the roles that Barateiro plays as an artist. The word curfew is an English corruption of the French couvre-feu, ‘cover your fire’. It is a moment of enforced quiet in an imposed state of exception, such as the austerity politics that Portuguese society is now being subjected to. The half-animal, with its intense gaze, might represent a short-circuiting of what we think we are seeing.