After loosing her husband when she was 47, Nha Maria raised their 13 children by herself. She struggled for over 30 years and managed to build her own house in the neighborhood of Achada Grande Frente, in Praia, Cape Verdes capital city. It’s a common situation in this tiny insular state in Western Africa, for women to be the main pillar of the household, often singlehandedly supporting their families. These are portraits of two of Nha Maria’s granddaughters, Ladisma and Erica who we met whilst out looking for walls.
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Portrait of Fafá. Now 79 years old, fisherman, diver, dockworker and later crewman on container ships. Fafá’s life and professional trajectory is common amongst many Cape Verdean men of his generation.
Projeto Xalabas is a social project promoted by the Africa’70 NGO in partnership with the Pilorinhu Association, presenting eight artist residencies over two years with international and Cape Verdean artists. The artists will then come together for a final festival in 2020.
The program is based on a concept of public intervention in collaboration and dialogue with the residents and traders of the Achada Grande Frente neighbourhood.
As well as making work in the local community local artists will engage in multimedia workshops to train young people from the neighbourhoods of Achada Grande and Lém Ferreira in photography, image capture, video editing, illustration, mapping and community journalism. With these tools The intention is to give young people the tools to create their own stories and promote community tourism.
Curator: Lorenzo Bordonaro