Maria Thereza Alves

 
Land
Recipes for Survival
Communal
Destabilizers
Birds
Seeing you
Water
Utopia
We
Borders
Plants
X

Nowhere

X

Nowhere, 1993

Installation

An investigation of the European concept of utopia in the Americas. St. Thomas Moore wrote that Utopia should be founded in the Americas where “the indigenous peoples have more land than they cultivate”. Moore also wrote that the local indigenous communities could be invited to participate in Utopia and if they did not want to then they should be killed.

The first Utopia in indigenous America based on Moore’s idea was founded in the town of Tlayacapan, in Morelos, Mexico, by the Augustinians just a few years after Cortez conquered and subjected this indigenous town in the 16th century.

Some of architectural plans drawn directly onto the images are from the Augustinians in Tlayacapan, and some from other architects such as Le Corbusier, Fourier, Niemeyer and others.

The images were taken during a trip the artist made to the Amazon, a place which has a long history of utopian ideas debated or implemented by Europeans or their descendants which is detrimental to indigenous peoples living in the area.

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