Gonçalo Mabunda is an artist and anti-war activist. He began his work as part of a project implemented since 1995 by the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM), which has been searching the country and collecting weapons from individuals and communities after a civil war that lasted almost twenty years. In this project, some weapons are destroyed while others are deactivated and given to men and women as Gonçalo Mabunda, to sculpt into art. Gonçalo Mabunda
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Gonçalo Mabunda is an artist and anti-war activist. He began his work as part of a project implemented since 1995 by the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM), which has been searching the country and collecting weapons from individuals and communities after a civil war that lasted almost twenty years. In this project, some weapons are destroyed while others are deactivated and given to men and women as Gonçalo Mabunda, to sculpt into art. Gonçalo Mabunda uses Kalashnikovs, rockets, pistols and cartridges to make anthropomorphic figures with deconstructed weapons. By transforming weapons into realistic figures, Gonçalo Mabunda literally transforms death into life. The figurines also represent the more than 1 million people killed during the civil war in their country. Gonçalo Mabunda He also lost family members during the war, which makes the work and deconstruction of weapons used during the 16-year war more important to him. Gonçalo Mabunda makes thrones and masks with these decommissioned weapons used during the Mozambican Civil War. The masks are based on traditional masks from Sub-Saharan Africa, however, the original twist on the art form, creating them from weapons, is unique to Gonçalo Mabunda. Representing power, the thrones of Gonçalo Mabunda they mock how traditional power depends on weapons. By using weapons, Mabunda's work conveys the message of how further violence can be avoided and that destroying weapons of war can be done in an aesthetic and artistic way. The art of Gonçalo Mabunda directly challenges the absurdity of war. His work has a modernist style and has been compared to the work of Braque and Picasso. Gonçalo Mabunda exhibited important museums such as the Center Pompidou in Paris, the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Gangwon International Biennale, South Korea, the Kunst Palast Museum in Düsseldorf, the Hayward Gallery in London, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Tropen Museum, Amsterdam, Norway Army Museum, Netherlands Army Museum, Sweden Army Museum and many more.
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