Talk

A Clay Manoeuvre

About

Glossary

Images from the event and research

Maria Thereza Alves is a Brazil-born artist, a cofounder of the Green Party of São Paulo, and a former member of the International Indian Treaty Council. On November 6, 2020, Alves contributed a KEYNOTE in which she discusses her long term project ‘The Return of a Lake’ In this meeting of art and activism, Alves works with the Indigenous people of the Xico valley in Chalco, nearby Mexico City, supporting and learning with the rehabilitation of a lake in the shadow of generations of colonial and neo-colonial devastations. Here, what returns is not just a lake, but the possibility of a way of life. During her talk members of SPIN collective, engaged in a clay manœuvre during which they re-carved the indigenous sculptures remaining in the illegally closed museum in valle del Xico. In this way, Maria Thereza is surrounded by hands building and illustrating the story she tells. The making with clay was also a way of dealing with the pandemic during a harsh lockdown.

The Return of a Lake: The Community Museum of Valle de Xico, social practice, and Indigenous hydro-agriculture

by Maria Tereza Alves

KEYNOTE @Kunstinstituut Melly

The Return of a Lake