Maria Thereza Alves

Artist Maria Thereza Alves, originally from Brazil and of Guarani, Kaingang, Portuguese, and African descent, has lived and worked in Europe since 1994. Her projects are concerned not only with the repatriation of objects but also with how these returns can enable greater agency for indigenous peoples in her home country. Concerned with the recovery of knowledge, Her project Fair Trade Head (2007) is a provocation aimed at European museums. The idea of the piece is that a living person can donate their head to the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Rouen in exchange for the return of a head from the Rouen collection back to the community of origin in Aotearoa/New Zealand.



Fair Trade Head (2007), Lambda prints, diptych, 100 x 100 cm each


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