Cabo de Guerra

As an artist and human being, it becomes increasingly difficult for me to identify with the political and social ecosystem that surrounds us. We live in a suffocating dynamic of opposites — left against right, right against left — where nuance is being banished and public opinion is being transformed into a battlefield. Insults and digital "lynching" have become commonplace, and the erosion of personal and family relationships is the price to pay.
In this era of populism, created and fueled through algorithms, disinformation, and media, our society is pushed towards artificial and futile conflicts. Human vulnerability and insecurities are instrumentalized to feed egos and strengthen structures of power and money. People who, in another context, would share empathy, friendship, and life, find themselves divided by invisible but profoundly destructive ideological barriers.

The installation "Tug of War" arises from a human concern and responsibility to draw attention to this collective paralysis.
By re-contextualizing the traditional game of tug-of-war, the work presents a black rope suspended in space (approx. 7 m), pulled by sixteen hands (human scale) — four on each side —, sculpted from the same material, and always replicating the same hands, the work eliminates any distinction between the parts.
On the floor, the spatial marking "LEFT / RIGHT" challenges the visitor's perception. As they move through the space and change their perspective, the orientation changes: what was left becomes right, revealing the arbitrariness of the labels with which we categorize the world.

While the extremities pull in conflict, the center of the installation remains static, representing the space we have lost: the place of active listening, of sharing ideas without prior judgment, and of human reconnection.

Artist Biography

Marian van der Zwaan was born in 1971 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She studied at the Free Faculty of Fine Arts in The Hague/Netherlands, 1997/2001. She has lived in Portugal since 1989. She currently resides in Torres Vedras. Her art installations are predominantly non-profit projects based on social issues, gender discrimination, and ethnic groups. She exhibits her works and installations in public spaces to bring her message to the general public. During the design phase, Marian travels to places and interacts with local communities, discussing the problems and their local impacts. She has collaborated with schools, institutions, support centers, governments, special police forces, among others, immersing herself in understanding the dynamics and issues related to the subject(s).

Marian has worked with several international entities such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Governments, IOM, and the project, “HHP”, received UNESCO Patronage status.

Throughout her career, she has exhibited in Africa, Latin America, the USA, and Europe.