combate (combat) #1, 2017
hammers, hatchet, machete, pick ax, rake, shovels, sickle, hoes, trident and saw
550 x 200 cm
photo Filipe Berndt

Organized on the wall tools and instruments, used by rural workers, form the outline of the Brazilian coast and the divisions of hereditary captaincies. This system of division and territorial administration was in force during the first phase of colonization in Brazil, in which the Colonial land owners, responsible for the 14 giant fractions of land, had an intimate and direct relationship with the Portuguese Crown. The mixture between feudal and proto-capitalist principles, structural to that system, represents the root of the way in which large landowners today deal with Brazilian territory, their private interests, and public power. The instruments presented in "Combat # 1" have been cataloged in articles and journalistic texts that document the struggles between rural workers and the Brazilian state's military forces.