Travelling Back

The weight of coloniality in the natural sciences is the subject of the exhibition Travelling Back, which revisits the history of a Bavarian expedition to Brazil between 1817 and 1820. The show, curated by Brazilian Sabrina Moura, opened at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich (Germany) on February 9, 2024.

Traveling Back is a critical immersion in the narratives and collections taken from Brazil to Germany by scientists Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, offering a unique insight into the impact of these explorations from a decolonial perspective. Traversing diverse accounts on landscapes, cultures and Brazilian biodiversity, the exhibition shows records of ethnographic artifacts, publications and illustrations of zoobotanical specimens collected during the 14,000 km expedition through Brazil, which took place in the first half of the 19th century. It also tells the story of Isabella Miranha and Johann Juri, two indigenous children taken to Munich by Spix and Martius, who died shortly after their arrival in Germany.

Along with historical archives, the exhibition features the writing of Micheliny Verunschk (Brazil), and contributions from contemporary artists such as Frauke Zabel (Germany), Yolanda Gutiérrez (Mexico/Germany), Igor Vidor (Brazil), Elaine Pessoa (Brazil) and Gê Viana (Brazil).

Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte

Katharina-von-Bora-Straße 10

80333 Munique, Germany

Visiting hours: Monday to Friday, from 10am to 8pm

Free admission

www.zikg.eu