Gonçalo Mabunda (Mozambican, Born 1975) Wunderkammer, 2018 109 X 110 X 63Cm (42 15/16 X 43 5/16 X 24 13/16In).
Provenance : Goncalo Mabunda was born in Maputo in 1975, the same year that Mozambique gained independence. Civil war broke out only two years later, and would continue to ravage the country until 1992. The artist's formative years were thus coloured by extreme violence and bloodshed. When a peace treaty was finally agreed, Mozambique was littered with weapons. Inspired by the pacifist verse from the Book of Isaiah - 'They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks' - the Christian Council of Mozambique launched an initiative to clear the streets of these arms, 'Transforming Guns into Hopes'. Over the next few years, some 800,000 guns, rocket launchers and grenades were collected. Many of the stockpiles were destroyed, but a handful were donated to the artist's collective, Nucleo de Arte, who disassembled the weapons and transformed them into public sculpture. Mabunda joined the collective in 1994, following a period of study in Durban. He was one of the ten Nucleo artists selected for the Christian Council's initiative. Having lost family members in the conflict, he was personally committed to ensuring that these instruments of destruction should cause no more suffering.
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