Quand le corps se fait parure

Entering its final month on view at the Musée du Cinquantenaire in Brussels is Quand le corps se fait parure, an exhibition examining the art of body modification and adornment in traditional cultures around the globe. The installation explores these practices as a type of language that integrates individuals into their social and cultural environment. Bodies are tattooed, scarified, pierced, painted, stretched or adorned, all of which practices demonstrate the social position of the individual and their links with their community. Amazonian body painting, nose pendants of Papua New Guinea, moulded skulls of the Amerindian peoples, and Chinese Miao earrings are just a few of many examples of this special form of physical communication on display in the exhibition.  On view through October 28.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Cinquantenaire

Cheveux Cheris: Frivolités et Trophées

An exhibition entitled Cheveux Cheris. Frivolités et Trophées (Cherished Hair. Frivolities and Trophies), conceived by Yves Le Fur, who has already organized a number of exhibitions that combine Western paintings and photographs with tribal works, opens at the Musée du Quai Branly on September 18. On view until July 2013, it addresses hair from a wide variety of human perspectives, from its use in the manufacture of objects to its preservation as a relic and a mnemonic device. Tribal works from South America, Polynesia, and elsewhere will comprise a significant portion of the objects on display.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Mask  -  Kanak, New Caledonia

Necklace  -  Polynesia

Shrunken head, tsantsa  -  Brazil

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Beyond Brazil: Tracking Johann Natterer through Space and Time

Now on view at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna is Beyond Brazil: Tracking Johann Natterer through Space and Time, an exhibition which showcases the results of one of the first scientifically deliberate European expeditions to Brazil. Until the early nineteenth century, Brazil was something of a terra incognita for Europeans. In 1817, the Austrian crown dispatched a scientific team to the country to study and document human cultures, flora and fauna. Johann Natterer (1787–1843) joined the expedition as a zoologist, travelling the country a total of eighteen years. As he died young and most of his notes were destroyed in a fire at Hofburg Palace in 1848, his collection and scientific work was long overlooked.

Thanks to his efforts, Vienna's Museum für Völkerkunde today houses the world’s most important ethnographic collection on early nineteenth-century Brazil. Comprising over 2,400 objects, it is among the most important of its kind but is little known to the general public. Beyond Brazil presents the first comprehensive survey of these fascinating collections.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Headdress  -  Makuna-ui, Guyana  -  ca. 1830

Headdress  -  Parintintin, Brazil  -  ca. 1830

Feathered cape  -  Mundurucu, Brazil  -  ca. 1830

Feather sceptres and sceptre case  -  Mundurucu, Brazil  -  ca. 1830

Watercolor depicting the installation of the Paressi and Caripuna collections in the "Kaiserhaus"  -  ca. 1840

Information and images courtesy of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna