Exu, the Messenger is an interactive sculpture in black ceramic, sculpted in slabs and fired at high temperature, which invites the public to actively participate in a symbolic experience of purification and transformation.
The work draws upon the figure of Exu as the messenger deity — the one who carries communications between humans and the orixás, establishing bridges between the material and spiritual worlds. In the African-Brazilian tradition, Exu is the lord of paths, crossroads, and exchanges, responsible for carrying offerings and messages between planes that are often not perceived, yet are constantly around us.
Beside the sculpture, the public finds a pen, paper, and the phrase:
"I burned here all the evils of the world!"
The visitor is invited to write on the paper what they wish to transform — sorrows, resentments, anxieties, addictions, or any symbolic weight they carry — and deposit it next to the artwork. The sculpture thus becomes an altar, a meeting point between the individual and the collective, where the "evils of the world" are ritualistically burned by Exu's transformative power.
The proposal dialogues with the tradition of despachos and offerings, in which Exu receives what must be carried to other planes, promoting renewal and new beginnings. The interaction is not merely aesthetic, but deeply ritualistic: the spectator ceases to be a passive observer and becomes an agent of their own catharsis.
Exu, the Messenger is therefore a work that transcends the boundaries of traditional sculpture to become a device for welcoming, listening, and spiritual renewal. By writing and depositing their requests, each participant connects to an ancestral chain of symbolic exchanges, reaffirming that art itself can be a path of transformation.
