Designed in the shape of a pontoon, Les Ressources: Acte-#2 [The Resources: Act-#2] (2025) is a monumental sculpture-like installation by the artist Hamedine Kane and his collaborator Boris Raux (from the School of Mutants), developed from research conducted in São Paulo and Salvador. The sculpture acts as a vessel carrying found objects such as wooden fragments, ropes, and jerrycans, all reminiscent of the boats that sail offshore, and by extension, fishing activities. Collected from several areas across the Brazilian coastline, these materials compose the core of large paintings and form an assemblage presented alongside accounts gathered within the fishing communities through fieldwork.

Les Ressources: Acte-#2 is a continuation of a similar work previously presented in Dakar, Senegal, and inscribes itself within the artist’s ongoing investigation of the abusive extraction of resources, particularly marine species across the coastal lines of Senegal and Brazil. Through meticulous note-taking and image-making of these processes, Kane presents compelling material addressing the gradual disruption of biodiversity in these regions. According to surveys conducted by several environmentalist journalists, predatory fishing has consequently decimated Brazil’s coastal fish population, leading to the quasi-extinction of certain species. Enabled by weak regulations, overfishing and illegal extraction of marine species by multinational companies exploiting Brazil’s coasts have depleted ecosystems and harmed the living standards of local communities, forcing the displacement of small fishers who rely on the ocean. These actions have also significantly impacted food security and environmental balance. Additionally, the installation highlights the disproportionate competition established against local and artisan fishing communities, who are the direct victims of such abusive and extractive resource exploitation.

Presented in São Paulo within the framework of the Bienal, Les Ressources: Acte-#2 is of utmost relevance to the context as it provides a cross-conversational platform that sheds light on the shared struggles of the fishing communities in Senegal and Brazil, but also on the existing geographical and epistemological resonances carried across both sides of the Atlantic between the coast of West Africa and South America.