Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes an approach to the discussion on returns and repatriations of objects from the pre-Hispanic past that value appropriations, reinterpretations and local aesthetics as a form of knowledge and connection with the past.

Paper long abstract:

This paper proposes an approach to the discussion on returns and repatriations of objects from the pre-Hispanic past through strategies and activations from contemporary art that are based on the notion of replication. The debate on belonging and the returning of the objects to the so-called "source communities" has question the role of Western devices of authorized knowledge to promote the right of access to these materials and their information. However, national and patrimonial logics have been imposed as the only form of claim, perpetuating the asymmetries and internal colonialism of the state and its control institutions. From my ethnographic experience in the community of La Pila (Manabí-Ecuador), where economic practices of commercialization of archaeological objects and production of crafts based on the pre-Hispanic past have been developed, I research the potential of craft practices based on replication and reproduction as memories and forms of knowledge from doing. In collaboration with artisans who have cultivated a family craft of clay replicas, I create artistic processes that value appropriations, reinterpretations and local aesthetics that evidence other epistemologies and possibilities of connection and coexistence with the past that distance themselves from the canon of originality and authenticity.