The cocoa sector faces significant challenges related to sustainability, working conditions and transportation costs. Deforestation reduces biodiversity and many farmers live in difficult conditions, with low wages and little access to services. In addition, the sector is characterized by exploitative labor practices, including precarious working conditions, lack of rights and excessive working hours.
Addressing these challenges, thinking about all sectors of chocolate production, as the Gobino factory does, is essential to balance economic productivity with environmental protection, while improving the well-being of farmers.
In developing my project I wanted to focus on the experiences lived during the residency, on the interpersonal relationships, on the great passion of the employees, as well as on the great enthusiasm and attention that the Gobino family places on sustainable development and on the care of both the working environment and the environment in which the plants are born.
A multisensory installation, consisting of a transport pallet loaded with jute bags used to store and transport cocoa beans from the cultivation sites to Europe, „stopped” exactly halfway from the plantation to the chocolate factory. Loudspeakers, hidden in some of the bags, emit recorded whispers of single words, sentences and questions about the contemporary ecological situation and the working environment in developing countries, mixed with the solutions used by the Gobino factory to support the sustainable development of the company and effectively solve the problems faced by cocoa farmers. The sounds coming from the loudspeakers are so faint that the viewer of the installation has to get close enough to the bags so that, in addition to hearing, they are also stimulated: smell (the smell of cocoa) and touch (the texture of the bag).
Whispering the future, installation, 120x160x200cm, pallets, jute bags, speakers, plastic, 2024
Whispering the future, installation view, 2024
Whispering the future, installation view, 2024
The collages highlight selected phrases (which can also be heard in the installation) that echo quotes from the employees and the owner of the factory, and that correspond to the life and work of the artist. The collages show, in fact, the creative process and the commitment of the artist, often full of reflections and failures. Like the work on the development of the company, artistic paths must also be improved day after day, going through critical moments or alternating imperfect, yet motivating, results with important successes.
Migliorare ogni giorno un pezzettino, collage, 60x80cm, paper on wood, Gobino chocolate labels, glue, 2024
Dolce per la gente che ti circonda, collage, 60x80cm, paper on wood, Gobino chocolate labels, glue, 2024
Perfetto nella sua imperfezione, collage, 60x80cm, paper on wood, Gobino chocolate labels, glue, 2024