Óscar Figueroa

The harmful effects of pesticides are the thread that connects many of the works of Óscar Figueroa Chaves who has dedicated himself to exploring the legacy of the plantation economy in his birth country, Costa Rica, for more than a decade. In 2016, as part of his participation in the tenth edition of the Central American Biennial curated by Tamara Díaz Bringas, Figueroa Chaves reverted to the use of the iconic blue plastic bags that populate many of his works. This time he wrapped the United Fruit Company headquarters in blue plastic in the Costa Rican city of Puerto Limón. This work, that echoes the environmental installations of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, symbolically limited the operational capacity of the company beyond the building itself. By confining the United Fruit Company inside of their own pesticide-sprayed plastic the artist aimed to denounce, in a monumental and symbolic way, the international companies that use the Global South as a laboratory for the development of abusive and extractive economic practices. As such, Figueroa Chaves attempted to metaphorically protect the local community from the UFCO.