Zo'é Baby Carrier Hammock

PUBLISHED - EXHIBITED - DOCUMENTED

Collection Jean-Pierre Dutilleux

Reproduced in the book
TRIBUS - The First People
Jean-Pierre Dutilleux
Éditions Vilo

Exhibition Le Monde Premier

Brazilian Amazonia, Rio Cuminapanema valley
Zo'é people
XXᵉ century

Vegetable fibers (wild cotton) woven and dyed with urucum.

DESCRIPTION

Rare infant carrying hammock made from hand-woven wild cotton and dyed with urucum, the red plant pigment emblematic of Amazonian peoples.

Consisting of a dense network of fibers assembled using a traditional technique, the whole forms a flexible pouch designed for carrying young children. The long braided straps allowed the pouch to be carried directly on the body, usually over the shoulder, facilitating daily travel in the forest.

Thanks to its exceptional chromatic intensity and the quality of its braiding, this piece has a remarkable visual presence. The depth of the red, achieved through the use of urucum, lends the object an aesthetic force that goes far beyond its initial utilitarian function.

Wild cotton plays an important role in traditional Zo'é material culture. Harvested, spun and woven locally, it is used to make ties, ornaments and everyday objects. Urucum, omnipresent in the visual universe of this Amazonian people, is used both as a body pigment and as a textile dye.

In contrast to the large hammocks used for sleeping, this model is specifically designed for infant carrying and is a particularly evocative testimony to family life and travel practices in the forest environment.

PROVENANCE

Jean-Pierre Dutilleux Collection

Collected during field missions conducted among the Zo'é in the Brazilian Amazon.

EXHIBITION

Le Monde Premier - Belgium, 2018.

The object was presented as part of the exhibition alongside a documentary photograph dedicated to the Zo'é of the Brazilian Amazon.

An exhibition photograph documenting this set accompanies the piece.

PUBLISHED

Example reproduced in:

TRIBUS - The First People
Jean-Pierre Dutilleux
Éditions Vilo.

The hammock features in the reference work devoted to the First Peoples encountered by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux during several decades of ethnographic missions.

ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION

This piece is accompanied by:
- a copy of the book TRIBUS - The First People;
- a Zo'é documentary photograph presented at the exhibition;
- the certificate corresponding to this photograph.

The set constitutes a remarkable documentary file directly linking the object to its context of use, its publication and its exhibition run.

STATUS

Very good used condition.

Structure intact and stable.

Wear and patina consistent with age and field use.

No restoration

NOTE

Few Amazonian textiles have a comparable level of documentation simultaneously bringing together:
- provenance Jean-Pierre Dutilleux;
- reproduction in a reference work;
- exhibition presentation;
- associated certified photographic documentation.

This ensemble lends the piece particular ethnographic, documentary and museum interest.

Price: €3,500