Mozambican artist gives life to weapons against force in Africa

Mabunda, 51, made the first throne with weapons destroyed in 1997, the year she began as an artist, to have somewhere to sit and weld, but one of her clients liked the work and bought it.

“ So from there I made another throne and began to think about African leaders, who they like to have thrones using force. Something like that. [In] Africa, many of them use force to reach the throne,” he says in an interview with Lusa in Maputo.

In the municipal district of Katembe, on the south bank of the capital bay, Gonçalo found a place to live art, giving life to objects from weapons and other metal remains.

On the floor of that place that is its workshop are scattered remains of war material used during the civil war that lasted 16 years, culminating in 1992 with the signing of the Peace Agreements.

The bullets, pieces of the AK-47 machine gun, chargers, pistols and remains of explosives began to reach Gonçalo's hands through a project of the Christian Council of Mozambique, which intended to collect and eliminate the weapons used in the war, but found in Gonçalo someone who could reframe the objects.

This is how Gonçalo Mabunda, who was already at the Art Center in Maputo, learning to paint, was discovered in the welding that transforms metals into art, inventing thrones or masks that are “false people”.

“ Every mask I put on is someone behind me who has another way of thinking. You look at her cute, all connected, all good. I remember myself, for instance, when I go to the bank, when I have earrings to take my money, I get weird. What's it like to be weird, buddy? If it's my money, [just] because I have an earring, I have bad hair. So I talk about this falsehood too, the identity of the person ", says.

In this sense, with the throne Gonçalo criticizes African leaders who use force to achieve power.

“ When I speak of the masks and the throne, I speak of the present African [leaders] who, I do not know how to say, always use the strength to reach the throne. The throne doesn't come like that. The throne comes naturally. The kings, those were not guys who used thrones, were entitled ", says.

“They always want blood to reach power,” he points out, admitting not to remember how many thrones he has made, but there are some in the welding process in his space.

Gonçalo was born on January 1, 1975, six months before national independence, with Mozambique entering the civil war two years later and a young artist being prevented from having military training.

Nevertheless, he was not free from the handling of weapons, with often seeing the remains of these warlike materials shooting suddenly during the preparation of the works.

“ When we started working with this stuff we didn't know it, we didn't master it. Sometimes I'd shoot. So I could be dead, or I could be dead tomorrow. But now I know better than before, because when we started we were 10 artists and we didn't know things. Some guns were stuck”, says, stressing that no one has been hurt until today.

Mabunda also began to find in her work reason to fight for peace which, she says, the country has never achieved in its entirety, despite efforts.

“ You're born, you grow up, and then there comes a time and you have to decide things. And in this case, for example, I was so lucky to be in the Art Center, to have the opportunity to have this war material and I began to make my career as an artist. But gradually, for example, in the outside world they call me a political artist, but I'm not a politician. But at the same time I am a person who criticizes all politicians”, he says.

“ My exhibitions have crazy titles. My last exhibition was called The Poverty Manufacturers' Guesser. You understand what I'm trying to say. The one who makes poverty is the one who has the gun ", says.

For the artist, peace is being conditioned by poverty and unequal distribution of resources that should prevent living in “any way”, as he witnessed in the district of Palma, in Cabo Delgado, a gas-rich province.

“Our country is in bad shape. There is no peace,” the artist diagnosed, criticizing the armed attacks in the province of Cabo Delgado, north of the country.

“The people always needed peace, school. Today you're saying the kids are studying under a tree, cold. I even watched it this morning on TV. Cold kids, walking. But it's a rich country. Your country is rich, you know? Very rich. But who was the wealth for? For some. A handful. No, it can't be like this. We have to try to divide”, asks.

Despite the wars in the country, Gonçalo's name came far and even former American President Bill Clinton asked the artist to build, based on destroyed weapons, the awards for the “Clinton Global Initiative Summit” in its 2008 edition, after the former statesman saw his works in an art collector in France.

“ He dared me to do it, I did it, I showed him, he said, that's it. What he wanted, happened”, he says, proud to “show that transforming weapons is a work of art”.

After making the awards and delivering them, Mabunda answered Clinton’s question: “He asked me ‘but why are you doing this with bullets?’ I said, 'cause every bullet I destroy is a life I'm saving. If I destroy thousands and thousands of bullets, it's a lot of lives I'm gonna save. These are lives that we save when we destroy.".