BEJU BAFATADA

‘Beju Bafatada’ refers to the title of a song by the Cape Verdean musical duo Ferro Gaita. Under it, we show two lines of work with different temporalities but which intersect in the same approach to form and message, where the fragmentation of the pictorial space into layers of matter and thought manifests itself as a constant in the artist’s work. These are, on the one hand, the series ‘Rabidanti’, ‘Nácia Gomi’ and ‘Petit Pays’ that he developed during his artistic residency in 2022 at the legendary lithography and artistic printing house Atelier Idem in Paris and, on the other hand, his most recent work, the collaboration with the Portuguese musician Slow J, one of the most relevant figures in the national music industry.

‘Beju Bafatada‘ (’Kiss Slap’) is the metaphorical synthesis of how Fidel Évora looks at his biography and Luso-African history as both projects ultimately establish a bittersweet gaze towards origins, memory and history – the public and the invisible stories – both in the individual and collective spheres, delving into the complexities of these different and intersecting realities that instill a duality in the feelings with which we can approach them.

Music has largely been a central element in Fidel Évora’s artistic imagery, affecting the paths that ended up shaping his career. The artist materializes one of the possible images that music contains. Music, likewise, has a high power of incision in the popular consciousness, as it could be established that it is the most accessible cultural artefact and perhaps, for that reason, the one that harbours the greatest capital to summon memory and, as a result, the ideal place to explore the concepts that most interest Fidel.

Curated by Carmen Bioque