A Semente

The cultivation of Hévea brasiliensis, the rubber tree, made the fortunes of great societies and marked one of the most dramatic periods of European colonialism. For profit, rubber capitalists used inhumane strategies that included slave labor, torture, murder and the abuse of women. A reality that continues to exist today with the exploitation of latex in Asian countries. In the video “A Semente” (The Seed), the artist weaves a complex web of events that goes from Ceará, northeast of Brazil, to the Amazon, crosses Morocco and continues from the Amazon to Malaysia, revealing ways of operating that even today sustain modern comforts and oppressions. The video is a traveler’s report that follows the flow of waters which lead to stories that want to be told so that, perhaps, their protagonists, having revealed what can no longer be hidden, can rest in peace.