Stolen ink from the Equator line

“Stolen ink from the Equator line” is a photography project inspired by the character of Francisco António Pires Barata, a family relative, who was Governor of São Tomé and Príncipe for a short period of time, after the Batepá Massacre (1953).

Stolen ink from the Equator line, "Tinta roubada à linha do Equador", encompasses the research and creation aspects of a photographic project, the result of an artistic investigation that seeks to dissect a decisive historical event in the history of São Tomé and Príncipe.

Through the point of view of a character from the artist's family circle, Lieutenant-Colonel Francisco António Pires Barata, it is possible to add a layer to a violent event in the country's history during the Portuguese occupation, the Batepá Massacre that took place in 1953 in the interior of São Tomé.

The project is anchored in three aspects: documents from the family archive, historical contextualisation, and artistic research to be developed in São Tomé.

The artistic research aims to investigate and represent the logic of occupation of the Portuguese regime, the violence it inflicted on São Tomé and its population, through a contradictory vision, that of an officer who was tasked with governing São Tomé in order to appease the population's spirits after the Massacre that occurred in 1953 in the town of Batepá, with the connivance of the previous Governor, Carlos Gorgulho.