EL FELLAH ANDO FES
2013
25 pieces of striped blue paper and 1 notebook hard cover, containing a series of sentences written by hand in red pen and pencil.
This work was produced during a residency at Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordania, as part of the HIWAR program curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Exhibitions:
‘Hunger, a man-made object’, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, 2014.
‘Objeto Frontera’, curated by Sophie Goltz, CA2M, Madrid, Spain, 2015.
‘Cartografías Líquidas’, curated by Blanca de la Torre, Museo Carrillo Gil, Ciudad de México, México y Artium, Vitoria, Spain, 2017.
Festival of Political Photography, Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, 2017.
‘Hunger, a man-made object’, Exhibition at MAZ Museo de Arte Zapopan, Mexico, 2018.
‘Accumulation by Dispossession’, Delfina Foundation, London, 2019. Curated by Dani Burrows.
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El Fellah Ando Fes (The Peasant Has A Hoe) explores the labour transformation in contemporary peasantry in Jordan. What we see is a calligraphy exercise where we can read the erosion of the labour conditions of small farmers.
Within the context of public schooling, calligraphy and grammar have a big place in the workload. Often the figure of the small farmer or peasant is used as the main subject of syntax exercises, realizing tasks of an idealized nature such as using a hoe, sleeping under the shade of a tree or going for a ride on his horse. Today’s job is different.
From small producer, to potassium factory worker, to soldier; the main character of this text goes through a series of reforms including the privatization of water and the introduction of open market policies, that will disrupt the continuation of his/her farming practice. Thus the farmer is no longer able to eat roast dove, get his daughter married or build his house.
Arabic text translation
Unit 1
Lesson 1
“The Peasant”
The peasant has a hoe.
The peasant rides a horse.
The peasant eats roast pigeon.
The peasant harvests the wheat.
The peasant waters the tomatoes.
The peasant feeds the chickens.
The peasant marries off his daughter.
The peasant builds a house.
The peasant rests in the shade.
Irrigation water gets privatized.
Irrigation water gets channelled to supply the city.
The fertile soil starts to turn into desert.
The peasant pays for irrigation water.
The peasant pays for industrial fertilizers.
The peasant pays for seeds.
Livestock feed gets more expensive.
Meat prices drop.
The peasant sells all his cattle.
The peasant goes on strike.
The peasant demonstrates against the rise in production costs.
Military police repress the protests.
The peasant gets advice from the agricultural engineer.
The peasant receives financial guidance from international donors.
The peasant is granted a generous loan.
The peasant mortgages his land.
Public support for production gets dismantled and the market opens up to imports.
Imported crops are sold below production costs.
The peasant undersells his crops in the central market.
The peasant does not want his children to become farmers.
The peasant wants his children to study in university.
The peasant’s children and his wife move to the city.
The peasant sells his land.
The peasant looks for a job.
The peasant is employed by a potassium private company.
The peasant gets paid by day.
The peasant has no contract.
The peasant joins the army.
The peasant dresses in a uniform.
The peasant stands guard at the barracks.
The peasant receives orders.
The peasant is involved in the special operation to appease the protesters.
The demonstrators protest against the rise in production costs.
The peasant confronts the protesters.
The peasant yells to another peasant.
The peasant pushes another peasant.
The peasant shoots at another peasant.
The high commanders send the peasant to fight in Haiti, Senegal, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea, Libya, Kuwait and Bahrain.
They are sent on a peace mission to quell protests.
The peasants have begun the protests.
You can hear them singing:
”Bread, Freedom, Social Justice!”