default

The work Curfew is based on a similar sculpture made by the Luena tribes of Dundo in what is now north-eastern Angola. The work and its title reflect two of the roles that Barateiro plays as an artist. The word curfew is an English corruption of the French couvre-feu, ‘cover your fire’. It is a moment of enforced quiet in an imposed state of exception, such as the austerity politics that Portuguese society is now being subjected to. The half-animal, with its intense gaze, might represent a short-circuiting of what we think we are seeing.