Monument of Sugar is a research into Europe’s subsidized sugar exports. To turn the flow of sugar around, the artists produced a sugar sculpture in Nigeria and shipped it to Europe. A written essay and documentary sequences chart their investigations into the sugar trade and their experiences when producing and transporting the monument.
We had succeeded in reversing the flow of sugar by transporting sugar from Nigeria to Europe and we also managed to avoid the European tariff barrier. We never did find any dumped European sugar. In the end, we fell prey to more tariff barriers then we succeeded in avoiding, so the sugar proved more expensive than at home. A philosophical Frenchman tried to console us with the argument that our sugar modules had been altered by their journey from autonomous, modernistic objects into things that had engaged in a relationship with the world. But we knew better now. If we were to do it over we would follow the subsidized materials from their source, we would not lose sight of them, and we would find a way to avoid their taxation on reaching land. Perhaps we could arrange a studio on board an embarking European sugar ship.
We had succeeded in reversing the flow of sugar by transporting sugar from Nigeria to Europe and we also managed to avoid the European tariff barrier. We never did find any dumped European sugar. In the end, we fell prey to more tariff barriers then we succeeded in avoiding, so the sugar proved more expensive than at home. A philosophical Frenchman tried to console us with the argument that our sugar modules had been altered by their journey from autonomous, modernistic objects into things that had engaged in a relationship with the world. But we knew better now. If we were to do it over we would follow the subsidized materials from their source, we would not lose sight of them, and we would find a way to avoid their taxation on reaching land. Perhaps we could arrange a studio on board an embarking European sugar ship.
