FERNANDO ARIAS (COLOMBIA)
Fernando Arias (b.1963, Armenia, Colombia) explores the human condition through video, photography, installation, and actions. Recurring themes include social and environmental issues, conflict, politics, sexuality, and religion. In addition to his personal practice, Arias involves other artists and professionals on projects through his Foundation Más Arte Más Acción (More Art More Action). Here, Arias devises interdisciplinary projects to explore challenging social and environmental issues. The foundation generates critical thinking through cultural exchanges.
Arias received his BA in Creative Publishing from University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano in 1987, followed by a Master in Graphic Design from the City of London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University) in 1991. He works between Bogotá and the remote Colombian Pacific coast of Chocó.
ENJOY YOUR MEAL
Theme: Materiality |
Year: 2008 |
Saturday, 5 November 2016 |
Duration (mins): 16:00 |
The sound of a western restaurant with its soft murmur of socializing and eating is followed by the view of a trawler’s ropes dragging its nets along an ocean bed. The scene then switches to a local fisherman named Magiver teaching his youths how to carve an essential tool to keep them alive – a wooden fishing canoe. Meanwhile, another local fisherman arrives at the trawler’s side on his carved canoe, offering bananas in return for prawns, or perhaps searching for work. On the trawler, the catch is landed and a mountain of squirming life falls on deck. The crew begins their task of sorting through the best prawns. They are then weighed, boxed, and placed in a freezer room, waiting to be shipped off to A Coruna in northern Spain.
Enjoy Your Meal explores three interlacing narratives in the global food chain: industrial fishing of prawns destined for Europe; depletion of sea creatures caused by trawling; and the struggle of indigenous fishing communities within the chain. The restaurant’s consumers, in their own way, are blind to the reality of how the food arrives at their tables. As they satisfy their hunger, the local fishermen continue suffering as the ocean gradually becomes void of resources. Fernando Arias combines footages from Coqui village (Colombia) and its Pacific coast to give us a glimpse into the repercussions of the developed world’s craving to eat whatever it wants whenever it wants it.
Arias’ short poetic documentary offers his contemplation on the search for food and the arduous tasks involved in retrieving it. This poetic rumination of image and sound reveals the means by which food reaches our table and the social and human impact of such economic practices. His documentary is a foreboding message about a fragile ecosystem, mined for its riches, is on the cusp of irreversible change.
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Country: Colombia. Genre: Environmental film. Crew: Director, Camera, & Edition: Fernando Arias. Crew & Translator: Jonathan Colin
