BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 216 pgs / 109 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 1/24/2023
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2022 p. 163

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783037787014 TRADE
List Price: $46.00 CAD $62.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

TERRITORY
NA LA

THE SPRING 2025 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

Preview our SPRING 2025 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.

LARS MüLLER PUBLISHERS

Helvécia: A Swiss Colonial History in Brazil

Edited with text by Dom Smaz, Milena Machado Neves. Text by Shalini Randeria, Rohit Jain, Izabel Barros, Christian Doninelli, Flávio Gomes. Photographs by Dom Smaz.

A photographic reckoning with Switzerland’s colonial legacy in Brazil

The most “African” of the Brazilian villages in the south of Bahia bears a Swiss name. Helvécia was founded 200 years ago by Swiss and German colonists, and the coffee grown on its vast estates produced great wealth for them. This would not have been possible without exploitation: in the mid-19th century, for every 200 white colonists, there were 2,000 slaves of African origin. Black people still make up the majority of the population today; many do not know the origins of their community.
With great sensitivity and in dialogue with the inhabitants, Swiss photographer Dom Smaz goes in search of traces of the past, capturing the lives of the local people. Smaz’s pictures and text contributions by Shalini Randeria, among others, allow a new look at history and the origins of Switzerland’s wealth, revealing global histories of interconnectedness and power relations of the past that continue into the present.