Born in 1975, Maputo, Mozambique
Lives and works in Maputo, Mozambique
Gonçalo Mabunda works on the memory of his country, Mozambique, which recently emerged from a long and brutal civil war that began in the mid-1970s. His childhood was marked by the violence and absurdity of this conflict. Mabunda works at the Núcleo de Arte studio. In 1998, he participated in the Transformation of Weapons into Art Objects project, which involved repurposing weapons collected at the end of the civil war in 1992.
He gives anthropomorphic forms to AK-47s, rocket launchers, pistols, and other instruments of destruction. Mabunda is primarily known for his thrones, made from war weapons. Thrones, traditional symbols of power, tribal, and clan authority in Africa, are, for him, an ironic way of “sitting” on the absurdity of Mozambique’s civil war, which isolated the country for a long time.
Collections
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
The Tropen Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Public Art Norway, Norway
The province Government, Norway
Army Museum, Netherlands
Army Museum, Sweden
Vatican Museums, Vatican
Projustitiae Fundation, Portugal
International Sculpture Park, Beijing, China
National Museum of Uruguay, Uruguay
Tempietto del Carmelo, Roma, Italy
Museum of Saint Etienne, France
Musée international des arts modestes,France
Memorial de Caen, France
National Museum, Mozambique
Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New-York, USA
Brooklyn Museum, New-York, USA
Parque da Davesa (Famalicao), Portugal
African Artists for Development, France
Victoria and Albert Museum, Untied Kingdom
