Decolonial Twists and Turns of the Tupinambá Cloak: Three Women Artists and Their Work on the Artefact that Became an Icon of Brazilian Identity

Abstract

This study delves into the artistic and symbolic appropriations of the Indigenous Tupinambá cloak through the work of three Brazilian women artists: Glicéria Tupinambá, Lívia Melzi and Lygia Pape. Based on a visual analysis of their poetics and juxtaposing their creations with the iconographic dimension of the artefact in key historical milestones, we intend to understand the interconnectedness of these artists' works with contemporary art practices. In doing so, we seek to recognise the role of interdisciplinary studies in understanding this pivotal moment in art history, characterised by a paradigm shift influenced by the decolonial movement. This movement has notably elevated the political and activist dimensions of the aesthetic field. Besides discussing the repatriation of objects of ethnographic interest, this case study traces the artistic trajectories of these three artists, whose poetics are examined through the lens of art criticism. This analysis is underpinned by a multidisciplinary theoretical framework that draws from various authors from fields such as art theory and history, as well as cultural and decolonial studies. There is no doubt that the return of the cloak has significantly reignited debates about the return of artefacts expropriated during Brazil's colonial period. However, we intend to point out the importance of recovering the techniques and gestures used by the artists to create and symbolically re-appropriate new cloaks, which is congruent with the reflection on political making in the fields of aesthetics and museology.