Museu da Casa Brasileira , São Paulo, February- June 2006
Curators: Adélia Borges and Cristiana Barreto
The purpose of the exhibition was to make a bridge between archeology, ethnography and contemporary design. Indigenous stools teach us how objects can be the result of long traditions that transformed over time and how their appearance now can have been fashioned by ancient practices no longer existing. Copies of Marajoara cultures (which flourished between the 5th and 15th Centuries) Santarém (10th to 17th Centuries) and Maraca (15th to 18th Centuries), all from the Amazon, suggest that the use of stools among the Indians has its origin in the demarcation of social roles. The pieces brought new light to the assessment of the 58 contemporary stools from 16 indigenous people featured in the exhibition, demonstrating how indigenous traditions are still alive, prompting a debate about the relationship between art, function and symbolism of the objects of our everyday lives. Exhibition design by Giancarlo Latorraca.
Photos Mariana Chama and Milton Guran
