The man of stone and other treasures deals with the genocide in Tierra del Fuego, the survivors and the human remains that can be found in various museum collections in Europe, Chile and Argentina. The starting point for the research was the collection of the Museum of Anthropology in Florence and the book Studio sopra una serie di Crani di Fuegini (Study of a Series of Skulls of Indigenous Fuegians) by anthropologist and museum founder Paolo Mantegazza.
The wall projection shows how Marcela Moraga was leafing through this book as part of her research when she happened to find a postcard of Carmelo, a Selk´nam child. Carmelo’s grandchildren gave Marcela Moraga a series of family photos for her project. The artist built a box that displays the pictures of the younger generation alongside Carmelo’s old photos.
One monitor displays a series of drawings of human skulls, which provide insight into the looting and trade of human remains from Patagonia to European museums. This took place between the 19th and early 20th centuries.
On another monitor, the artist presents a series of photographs of the sculpture David as well a figure of a giant Indigenous from Tierra del Fuego, which belongs to the collection of the museum in Florence. The story of The man of stone, which recounts the horror of the Yagan people (Yamana) during the genocide, was collected by the ethnographer Martin Gusinde.
The installation consists of three videos, a box with photographs, two cicadas (found dead in the streets of Florence), a small branch of a Lenga tree (Nothofagus pumilio) and an audio piece. All these elements refer to the old cabinets of curiosities. Many pieces of the collection of the Museum of Anthropology in Florence have their origin in the cabinets that belonged to the Medici family, pieces that correspond to animal bodies, plants, personal and ritual goods and human remains, different ‘treasures‘ brought from the colonized countries.
The man of stone and other treasures was commissioned for the group show MAI Museo Antropologico Immaginario curated by Valeria D’Ambrosio at Villa Romana, Florence 2020. Together with the artists: Gabriela Acha and Gian Piero Frassinelli.
Photos and drawings of the video installation: Marcela Moraga. Editing: Ginés Olivares
Audio piece created thanks to the voices of: Adrian Fisher, Björn Perborg, Cristian Forte, Francisco Brugnoli, José L. Alonso Marchante, Kevin Kopacka, Manuel Perna, Turbo Jambon and Wolfgang Albrecht.
The man of stone video voice in German: Prof. Michael Fehr, in English: Adrian Fisher, in Italian: Prof. Marco Benvenuti.
Research support: Agnes Stillger, Mónica Araus Siebert and Beatriz Carrillo.
Photos of the video installation at the exhibition: OKNO Studio and Marcela Moraga.
Text about the work by art historian, researcher, and educator Agnes Stillger: «Das brutale Museum: Koloniale Gewalt in Feuerland und die europäische Melancholie – Über Verlust und Re-humanisierung im Werk der chilenischen Künstlerin Marcela Moraga»