A flood devastated a small town in Brazil and Alves traces the man-made actions throughout colonial history until the present which caused this destruction. The cattle-stomped hills deliberately denuded of the rainforest – how can we love this injured land?​

​
Maria Thereza Alves, a Brazilian artist living in Europe, researches social and cultural phenomena. Alves focuses on concepts that question social circumstances; concerning what we think we know, who we think we are and to look instead at where and how we actually are at this time. Maria Thereza Alves’ artistic trajectory is inseparable from her political activism, whether it be in favour of ecology, the rights of indigenous minorities or territorial and​
decolonising struggles.​

​
Maria Thereza Alves (1961, Brazil) does not favour any particular medium, although her work often takes the form of prolific installations mixing natural and manufactured objects, videos, texts, drawings and photographs. These installations, like real investigations, reconstruct the artist’s explorations and actions on a given territory. In the same way, her field of research and commitment is free of geographical boundaries, whether she invests in the urban environment (New York, Manchester) or natural spaces. The Seeds of Change project, begun in 1999, this time articulates the issues of colonization, slavery and ecology. Seeds brought back to Europe by merchant ships are exhumed and then replanted in the heart of large western cities on floating platforms. The circulation of beings, whether human or plants, allows Alves to draw up a paradoxical history of globalization, between uprooting, abandonment and resistance.