“Pain”
Part of the “Today, before your eyes” project,
I traveled roughly 8000 from Kenya to South Africa through Tanzania, Malawi and especially Mozambique where I stayed for two months. This three-month trip was carried out in collaboration with local stakeholders and 5 NGOs. I interviewed around 300 people in more than 15 communities stricken regularly by the effects of climate disruption which happen to compound already existing crises.
In Mozambique I accompanied Pain Without Borders, a French international solidarity NGO working in health and striving to bettering pain management, end-of-life symptoms and local suffering.
Aiming at showing the feelings of the stricken communities in the most accurate way possible, I accompanied the NGO in the Sofala and Gaza provinces to carry out interviews with the local people. Four sculptures were born from these testimonies. Sculpted with recovered steel and covered in calamine which gives them their black shade. I created a contrast with rust to emphasize the body parts where patients feel pain.
In 2019, cyclone Idai devastated the Mozambican town of Beira, Sofala province, where I happened to stay for 6 days. The outcome : 1000 dead, 600 000 affected, thousands deported and 90% of the town destroyed.
Lorenzo
Lorenzo is one of the patients I met with the NGO and meeting him particularly struck me.
35-year-old Lorenzo suffers from bone tuberculosis which paralyzed both his legs. He is physically frail and also had a stroke which rendered him psychologically unstable. He is entirely dependent on his wife and daughters who tend to him while attempting to find income to provide for this family of four. He used to be a fisherman.
The interview had just started and as I was asking him about the impact of Idai on his family, he immediately had a strong reaction and screamed the name of the cyclone, shaking and crying. The interview was immediately cut short and we left the premises. Lorenzo is traumatized by Idai’s rampage.
Lorenzo is one of the patients I met with the NGO and meeting him particularly struck me.
35-year-old Lorenzo suffers from bone tuberculosis which paralyzed both his legs. He is physically frail and also had a stroke which rendered him psychologically unstable. He is entirely dependent on his wife and daughters who tend to him while attempting to find income to provide for this family of four. He used to be a fisherman.
The interview had just started and as I was asking him about the impact of Idai on his family, he immediately had a strong reaction and screamed the name of the cyclone, shaking and crying. The interview was immediately cut short and we left the premises. Lorenzo is traumatized by Idai’s rampage.
Felipe
A 15-year-old teen, Felipe has both mental and physical deficiencies. He is epileptic, malnourished and looks like a 10-year-old child.
His mother Melita is 45 years old and a mother of 3. She has been HIV-positive since 2023, like 25% of the Gaza population. Her family lives in extreme poverty.
A 15-year-old teen, Felipe has both mental and physical deficiencies. He is epileptic, malnourished and looks like a 10-year-old child.
His mother Melita is 45 years old and a mother of 3. She has been HIV-positive since 2023, like 25% of the Gaza population. Her family lives in extreme poverty.
Paulina
Paulina had a stroke several days after Idai. She is psychologically unstable. When I visited she was sat in a big chair, jaw clenched and fingers intertwined. She recounts the noise, the screams, the screeching sound, the roof blown off, the death of the coop and her fleeing to her neighbor’s. She stands up and opens a neatly organized file. She draws a pile of documents from the file : 23 attestations of civic work participation such as women and men equality awareness, HIV, climate disruption, forest preservation, and so on. Commitment to causes helps her sleep better.
Manuela
Manuela lives in Beira and feels pain in her eyes. She can’t work and depends on her children’s help. She can neither afford to go to the hospital nor pay school fees for her children.
Manuela lives in Beira and feels pain in her eyes. She can’t work and depends on her children’s help. She can neither afford to go to the hospital nor pay school fees for her children.