A bica

In an exemplary way, A Bica [Waterspout, 1999] sets up a dialog between the two traditions that inform Marepe’s work: the history of 20th century art and the popular practices in the context where he was born and lives: the Recôncavo Region of the state of Bahia. The artwork’s title evinces its meaning: by adding a water collection device to the roof, the
idea is for the rainwater to transform the sculpture into a watershed. The sculpture’s link with a natural phenomenon, coupled with the waiting time between rains alludes to the reality experienced by the artist in the interior of State of Bahia, insofar as it expresses the uncertainties and announces solutions associated with the scarcity of water. However, the possibility of contemplating A bica without water also suggests approximations with the dadaist production of the early 20th century, above all with A Fonte (1917) by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), in which the object is displaced from its original context, bereft of its utilitarian function. The strategy of the readymade, however, enriches the object conceptually by conveying an allegory of the context to which it refers. The allusion to the dwelling and the strategies of survival has been a recurring theme in Marepe’s oeuvre, in works such as his series of Embutidos (1999) and O Telhado (1998).