Broken Hill

PRATCHAYA PHINTHONG, born in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, in 1974, develops research structured by propositions that intervene in global social and economic structures and are directly linked to geopolitical contexts. Phinthong works in a dynamic space between different realities, delineating the space and distance that separates them through systems of exchange and equivalence, which evidence the processes of materialization of value. Often made collaboratively, her projects become a platform for sharing possibilities.
In Broken Hill (2013), the artist presents a replica of the first human fossil found in Africa: discovered by miners in the town of Kabwe, Zambia, in 1921, the skull was looted by British colonial authorities and is still part of the Natural History Museum in London. By proposing the exhibition of the replica at the National Museum of Lusaka while the original is in England, Phinthong makes visible the colonial apparatuses at work in the shaping of history and the process of museum collection formation, thus highlighting the absurdity of such a situation.