The Poor

„The Poor" is a bas-relief made out of dried bread on wood panel.

This artwork is about the heavy weight of suffering of the destitute people, and about survival and social inequality.

Five saddened figures are gravitating around a single loaf of bread, which represents their only survival source and, at the same time, a source of conflict. Who is going to get the bread and who isn't? Two male figures are ready to fight. Another one seems to intervene while a woman and her child are hopelessly waiting for their loaf.

The choice of bread as the artistic medium is meant as a metaphor: the very substance expected to nourish becomes the tool used to materialize hunger. The fragmented and coarse texture of the dried bread further emphasizes the physical and spiritual decay of the figures. The visual contrast is amplified by the stark red background against which the silhouettes are set. This intense color is an alarm, a state of urgency, a silent scream of desperation in the face of famine.