TIK CHOK — Work created for CHOKOLASHOW® 2025

The work is born from listening to matter: chocolate.

A substance that carries with it a complex and stratified history, made of magic and ritual, but also of exploitation, fatigue and inequality. The sweetness we recognize and consume today is the result of a long journey, of trade routes and invisible arms that contributed, often in silence and suffering, to making it part of our daily lives.

From this memory emerges the figure of the Tiki mask: an archaic and symbolic presence, traditionally invoked to protect from evil spirits. In the contemporary context, it becomes a critical talisman: a guardian that invites us to reflect on the hidden price of beauty and pleasure, and at the same time to recognize the need for new forms of protection and awareness.

The insertion of crossed oars amplifies this symbolic dimension. They evoke the arms that worked so that cocoa could reach us, but also the strength of cooperation, the collective gesture that transforms individual fatigue into a shared journey. In this perspective, the work is not only memory, but invitation: it reminds us that the future cannot be built on exploitation, and that to reach fairer and more sustainable shores we must all learn to row together.

*oars — theme drawn by lot