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During the Eighteenth Century, Bristol was heavily
involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade through the importation of
raw sugar from the Carribean which was refined in sugar houses around
the city. Berlin based artist Ana Bilankov investigates this historical
fact in her digital video piece Sweet Home. Sugar is poured into
a coffee cup and stirred until it is saturated and overflows, the
sound of the spoon slowly scraping the bottom of the cup is emphasised
and disturbing. The action becomes an attempt to stir history -
the history of Bristol and its involvement in the slave trade and
the personal history of the artist´s experience of displacement,
migration and nomadism.
Sweet Home was developed by Ana Bilankov whilst in residence at Watershed
in February 2002 and exhibited as a DVD Installation in March 2002.
This project was a collaboration between Watershed, the Research Centre
for Contextual, Public and Commemorative Art, UWE, Bristol and the Institute for Art in
Context at the University of Arts, Berlin.
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