Vesna Bukovec

Sweet Oblivion

2018
Handmade chocolate candies with a message
Ingredients: cocoa powder, cocoa butter, agave syrup, vanilla, cranberries

We often associate positive, pleasurable feelings with chocolate. We use it to sweeten up our day and even to comfort ourselves. We offer it to others as a sign of love, affection or gratitude. Chocolate is considered to be on the opposite end of the spectrum as suffering.

The exploitation of people and nature (an underpaid work force, child slave labor, the use of pesticides and other chemicals) is already present in gathering the raw ingredients for chocolate. The majority of chocolate products that are sold in stores are made from milk chocolate, which extends the reach of exploitation and suffering to animals.
The message wrapped around the chocolate candy transforms the sweet experience of enjoying a chocolate into an unpleasant one, which we forget as quickly as we crumple up and throw away the wrapper. In the same way as we shrug it off, when we hear about the suffering that happens to others.

Messages:
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Every minute, 20 people lose their home.
There are more than 65 million refugees in the world. Half of them are younger than 18.
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From 2015 to the end of February 2018, 3339 refugees died on the road to freedom and a better tomorrow.
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Every year, one third (1.3 billion tons) of the world’s food production is lost or wasted.
In 2016, 815 million people were suffering from starvation.
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Every year we slaughter more than 150 billion animals for human food consumption.
In the entire history of the world, 1.64 billion people have died in wars.
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A third of all women in the world have been physically or sexually attacked at least once.
In Slovenia, half of all women have experienced at least one form of violence (psychological, physical, financial abuse, restricted movement, sexual).
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For many years, Slovenia has been violating the human rights of the Roma people.
In the southeast of the country, they live without access to water, electricity and legally secure housing.
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Approximately 1.8 million children in West Africa work on cacao plantations.
They earn less than $2 a day. Many of them are forced into slave labor without pay.

Sources of information:
http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/
http://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html
https://missingmigrants.iom.int/
http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/world-hunger-report/en/
http://vegan.si/za-zivali/
http://vegan.si/novice/najboljsi-nacin-za-pomoc-zivalim-vas-lahko-preseneti/
http://www.adaptt.org/about/the-kill-counter.html
http://www.bitesizevegan.org/bite-size-vegan-nuggets/qa/quantifying-suffering-cruelty-by-the-numbers/
http://www.upc-online.org/chickens/chickensbro.html
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-total-global-death-toll-for-all-wars-and-genocides-in-the-20th-century-including-famines-where-government-or-individuals-were-responsible
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/
http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures
http://skei.si/uploads/skei2/public/_custom/SplosniPodatki.pdf
http://www.amnesty.si/letno-porocilo-17
http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/
http://www.delo.si/kultura/film/dokumentirano-temna-stran-cokolade.html

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The work was exhibited at solo exhibition Briga me za konec sveta / I am not bothered with the end of the world, Simulaker Gallery, Novo Mesto, 2018.