leite de pedra

(milk from stone)

“Milking a stone” is a popular expression in portuguese (tirar leite de pedra) that means, achieving good results despite very adverse conditions, making the impossible possible.

In Leite de Pedra (2018), Matheus Rocha Pitta, in partnership with the NGO Redes da Maré, invited residents of Maré, a very dense peripherical neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro, to literally milk a stone: a liter of milk was offered in exchange for a kilo of stones. Flyers were spread announcing the event, that took place on a Saturday morning.

The milk exchanged with the stones came from 1 L Tetra Pak milk boxes, which were emptied : only the content was exchanged. The stones used in the transaction will later fill these empty boxes, forming the units the sculpture. The milk was poured into empty bottles, that the stone gathers brought with them, informed by the flyer.

The result seems impossible: a petrified pallet of milk (1080 liters). The sculpture is the residual materialization of an exchange where money was substituted for rubble.

Leite de Pedra (Milk from Stone)

2018

stones, milk packing, concrete and wood.

120 x 120 x 120 cm

demonstration of procedure