Massaged sugar loaves,

ephemeral installation

Makarka means unrefined sugar in Reunionese Creole. “Dirty sugar” is a word that tells a dirty story.
Totemic, menacing, oozing, swollen and crusty, the sugar loaves standing on this black circle form a kind of archaeological mandala, a place of worship in an abandoned room. Black, glittery sugar made from the recipe for failed caramel exerts both fascination and disgust.
Volcanic landscape: vegetal turned mineral, mummified, petrified, this ensemble like a set for a Negro version of Hansel and Gretel: one that incorporates slavery, mistreatment and despoilment. Fontenay-le-Comte, halfway between Nantes and La Rochelle, has seen the results of the sugar wars.
What is indispensable does not come from nothing.

Juliette Cortes, 2013, catalog passe-moi le sel !