Maria Thereza Alves

São Paulo, 1961. Lives in Berlin

Through a series of collaborations, Um vazio pleno [A Full Void] (2017) discusses the whitewashing of the indigenous presence from the history of the construction of Sorocaba. Tracing relations between the past and the present, the project throws light on the colonial practices still in use in the present day, and articulates visibilities and narratives of resistance.

For the Triennial, the artist collaborated with the Guarani ceramicist Maximino Rodrigues to produce replicas of funereal urns, water jars and pottery shards on display at the Sorocaba History Museum. The material was distributed strategically throughout the town centre in a bid to reinsert the indigenous presence in the local public space and symbolic repertoire.

In dialogue with the family of the Guarani leader Joaquim Augusto Martim, founder of the Yyty Village on Jaraguá Peak, in São Paulo, the artist invited the Guarani educators Eunice Martim and Poty Poran to hold a conference on the social reality of the state’s Guarani indians. The event got underway at São Bento Square in downtown Sorocaba, more precisely at the foot of the monument to Baltasar Fernandes, the Bandeirante explorer who founded the town, and proceeded to Dr. Arthur Fajardo Square, home to the monument to Rafael Tobias Aguiar, the founder of the Military Police.

At the Triennial, Alves exhibits a set of videos recorded by indigenous students at the Sorocaba campus of the São Carlos Federal University. Recorded on cellphones during an indigenous contemporary art workshop delivered by the artist, the videos feature interviews with non-indigenous students answering questions put to them by their indigenous peers.

[Y.R.]