NEO-CANNIBALISM

Reimagination of the artwork "Tapuya Woman" (1641), by the Dutch painter Albert Eckhout, for a workshop in the Fashion Program - Istituto Europeo di Design - IED Madrid.

This project presents a photographic series that explores the subtleties and details of the "garments" and ornaments of an Indigenous woman from the Tapuya tribe, one of the native groups that inhabited colonial Brazil.

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Beyond the aesthetic and sartorial research conducted as part of the Fashion Program in which this work was developed, students were invited to reflect on how the original painting (currently preserved at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen) contributed to developing a stereotyped image of Indigenous peoples in the minds of Europeans.

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The narratives surrounding the cannibalism depicted in the artwork in question were used as evidence of the "barbarity" of Indigenous peoples, portraying them as "savages" and justifying their subjugation and exploitation by European colonizers.

Practiced as a ritual, cannibalism was a spiritual custom among Indigenous American peoples based on the belief that by consuming the flesh of defeated enemies, they honored them and acquired the powers and attributes they possessed in life, thereby strengthening the entire community.

These stories were distorted and exaggerated as part of a propaganda strategy to dehumanize Indigenous peoples and legitimize colonization and the "civilizing mission."