HUNGER – A MAN-MADE OBJECT

What laws govern the world’s food production and trade? Who has the power to decide the cost of food and the producer’s share?

Asunción Molinos Gordo‘s multi-part work Hunger – A Man-made Object (2014) is an installation comprising photographs and objects. In her work, Molinos Gordo highlights phenomena in global trade, such as price speculation in grain, small-scale farmers running into debt, and the concentration of power in large multinational companies.

The problems of agriculture most severely affect small and medium-sized producers in developing countries, as they cannot rely on any societal support systems and have no chance of negotiating a more advantageous position for themselves on the grain, seed and fertiliser market dominated by a handful of major corporations.

Molinos Gordo emphasises that it is not only the livelihood of small farmers that is threatened, but also the cultures and communities that they represent. They have in their possession tradition, know-how and expertise, which are at risk of disappearing, as food production is concentrated into increasingly large units.

THE NON-EGYPTIAN RESTAURANT
(EL MATAM EL MISH MASRY)

In 2012, Asunción Molinos Gordo converted a Cairo gallery space into a restaurant for one month. The restaurant worked as an instrument for common critical analysis, to help understand the reasons behind Egyptians diminishing access to food.

During the first week, the restaurant served dishes made from the best Egyptian ingredients, which are not available to the locals under normal circumstances. During the second week, the restaurant was taken over by four local women, who worked with a budget that corresponded to the average food expenses of families living in the area.

During the third week, Molinos Gordo scoured the area around the restaurant to find food grown in the blocks nearby. What she found was inedible. In the last week, she and a group of archaeologists excavated in the backyard of the restaurant to find signs of a period when the area was cultivated.

Egypt’s agricultural policy has led to a situation in which high-quality vegetables are produced for export, while most local people can only afford the cheapest imported food products with poor nutritional value.

Asunción Molinos Gordo (born 1979) is a Spanish artist, who lives in Spain and Egypt.

︎ Asunción Molinos Gordo