Fruits & Labor I (U.F.Co. 2404); (U.F.Co. 2640); (U.F.Co. 2630), 2022, 2023 & 2024, Fine Art Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, dried flowers, Beer label, United Fruit Company tokens, 64 x 44 cm; 54 x 44 cm; 44 x 54cm
Fruits & Labour (I & II) deal with the global economic contexts of the armed Colombian conflict and the so-called paraeconomía. Paraeconomía refers to those multinational corporations that hired paramilitaries to murder trade unionists and leaders of social movements, which in turn strengthened the support of the guerrillas among the rural population. These include among others Chiquita, Coca Cola, Postóbon, Hyundai, Nestlé, British Petroleum, Dole and Del Monte.
Fruits & Labour I show photographs of a replica guerrilla camp. Former FARC combatants built it in a demobilized zone in order to tell their story to visitors in a "tangible” way and in the hope of generating financial income. Here, in “Tierra Grata Eco Tours”, tourists can stay overnight. The prints are collaged with dried flowers and antique tokens from the United Fruit Company, now Chiquita, making reference to the historical exploitation of Latin America by global corporations as a contributing cause of the conflict.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the United Fruit Company (U.F.C.) forced numerous states in the Caribbean and Latin America into neocolonial dependencies through its aggressive expansion. Banana workers had to work under exploitative, undignified conditions. Their wages, however, were usually paid in tokens, which could only be redeemed in stores operated by the U.F.C. Governments that resisted the export duties and tax breaks dictated by the U.F.C. were overthrown by their U.S. backed political influence and replaced by dictatorships, for example in Honduras in 1910 or in Guatemala in 1954.
In Colombia, up to 2,000 striking U.F.C. workers were murdered by the military on December 6, 1928. The banana massacre is considered one of the decisive events of the subsequent era of La Violencia and the founding of the guerrillas, which in turn gave rise to the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia.
Fruits & Labor I (U.F.Co. 2641); (U.F.Co. 2634); (U.F.Co. 2632), 2022 & 2023, Fine Art Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, dried leaf, dried flower, dried stem, United Fruit Company tokens, 32 x 39 cm
Fruits & Labor I (U.F.Co. 2346), 2023, Fine Art Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, dried flower, United Fruit Company tokens, 54 x 44 cm