El proyecto Kala boka empieza desde 2015, momento en que se empieza a fraguar en mi un sentimiento de empatía con los jóvenes y niños con los cuales trabajaba y con vivía día a díaen el municipio de Tarrafal. Un trabajo constante con los alumnos del centro despertó en mi un gran interés en trabaja con ellos através del arte la idea del retrato y la identidad, es entonces que se fuerón creando las primeras imágenes, bocetos e ideas de lo que es ahora en un proyecto pictórico en desarrollo de carácter crítico-social.De hecho mi estancia en Tarrafal durante estos años fué muy influyente a nivel personal y de ahí mis pinturas más recientes, ya que el arte es la expresión de uno mismo yestos trabajos es el resultado de la unión creativa de los niños del centro de educación Delta Cultura y de mi propia vivencia con ellos.

En mis pinturas se percibe el conflicto entre la inocencia y la madurez de un niño maltratado o abandonado por los familiares, así como las consecuencias de la negligenciade una sociedad que olvida amar a los que más los necesitas. Para ello utilizó técnicas como el collague, la fotografía, la pintura acrílica y al óleo, utilizando como soportes tablas y bastidores; sobre tela de arpillera y tejidos africanos, con motivos florales y mucho color, para mostrar no solo una imágen crítica y pesimista, sino con la intenciónde crear una tensión de emociones entre las imagésnes de los niños, manchas de color bastas, zonas tapadas y tachadas, costuras, fondos planos, telas coloridas y flores llenas de color que son reflejo de una cultura que apesar de sus problemas son seres de luz llenos de alegría. 

Alejandro aka Guino García joined Delta Cultura in 2015 on a voluntary basis on the art program. He brought to Delta Cultura a very interesting concept of art which resonates exactly with Delta Cultura’s vision and mission. Therefore, his work with children was very influential to Delta Cultura and the community itself.

He always taught kids that art is based on one’s self free expression. By bringing together his creative mind and the children’s, he created a lot of art crafts
that could be used by the kids as toys, school materials, furniture, etc. One of his most effective influence over the children was his teaching on recycling and the capacity to turn trash into art. Before Alejandro, there was a lot of trash that was
discarded at Delta Cultura Education Center. But since he joined us, he taught us that everything that we see can be perceived and turned into art work. Even children wouldn’t discard any trash at home nor allow their parents to do so, so that they can bring it to Delta Cultura and turn it into art crafts.

Alejandro’s spirit is of a child himself. Therefore, his strong reciprocal connection with children. He knows the hard reality that children face everyday
and the many oppressions they suffer from in our community. Therefore, throughout his late work around the issue of violence against children, I can truly perceive the pain, the oppression, and the agony that children suffer in our community by the hands of parents, teachers and people who believe that violence is an educational tool.

But Alejandro’s work went beyond Delta Cultura’s perimeters and it influenced more people on the community. One of his work was around the beauty of capeverdean women and the strong spirit of single parent women who dedicate every single day of their lives struggling to bring food to their table for their children. His illustrations of these women resonate with the true identity of capeverdean women.

Alejandro’s paintings are very subjective. As he claims himself, “a painting can be whatever your eyes see”. I believe that it is a way he finds to communicate with the audience: in a language that both, himself and the audience, would understand.
His late work on violence against children, one can clearly see what the painting aims to show. One can perceive a lack of identity and the conflict between innocence and maturity, as well as the consequences of negligence and abuse.

Alejandro is loved throughout his work and by his unique personality. His painting gives voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless. His kind heart
is reflected in the kind smiles and looks that his paints display on every kid and women that he paints.

By Gilson da Costa
A friend and a true admirer of his work

Guino García’s works express a sad reality in vivid colours: born from his personal experience during his life in Cape Verde, it addresses a universal topic. While they portray children who Guino has become friends with during his time on the islands, they are, at the same time, a representation of children all around the world who suffer from violence and child abuse.

To make the general visible by talking about a concrete experience has always seemed a bit of a miracle to me.
Opposite to the wide spread opinion that general truths mean knowledge and understanding, I do believe that there is no understanding without feeling, that to know something without having any kind of emotion towards it means to cite facts and not to comprehend. This, in turn, is one of the things that I value most in art: that through beauty, we provoke an emotion in the viewer, that we soften the soil that their mind and their heart is and then plant our seeds in them: our topic, our message, our reflection.

I’m very happy that I was given the chance to publish Guino’s ‘Kala Boka’ on my platform as I do love those kinds of artworks that unite beauty, honesty and a topic worth talking about. Guino García’s works have achieved to not only bring his personal experience close to me, but the topic behind it.

I do hope, dear readers, that you had a similar experience with them, and that the pieces of art shown to you were able to bring a kind of understanding to you that no facts could have.

Thank you for visiting this exhibition and for reading this until the end. Please feel free to approach me for any questions about this beautiful project, Guino García or suboartmagazine.