Atlas of Lost Finds: Marajoara Chapter

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In the night of September 2, 2018, humanity witnessed the devastating loss of one of the world’s largest natural history and anthropological collections. A fire at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro reduced more than 90% of the museum’s 20 million artefacts to ashes.

After the devastating fire , an unprecedented situation arose: For the first time in history, a museum once filled with objects of cultural and indigenous knowledge was left with nothing but digital high-resolution models. In this fragile context, the multi-year research project Atlas of Lost Finds was founded. This project investigates different ways in which new artefacts can be formed using the data and other intangible knowledge of objects whose physical counterpart is lost. By actively engaging with these 3D files of culturally and historically significant objects and connecting with diverse networks of individuals, we identify a range of strategies to re-materialise these artefacts and upload them with contemporary narratives.

Through the act of 'copying', Atlas of Lost Finds seeks to provoke a discussion about different types of knowledge and knowledge sharing, about overcoming our historical prejudices, about looking beyond the dominant western perspective that overshadows many original artefacts, and making space for the indigenous cultural narrative and knowledge that lie deep within these objects.

In August and September 2022, Unfold travelled to Brazil to collaborate with a collective of local and indigenous researchers & makers on Chapter §2 of the Atlas of Lost Finds: the re-materialisation of the lost Marajoara funerary urn in the very place it was originally made, the beautiful Marajo island in the Amazon delta.