An essay about the project “Maison Tropicale” by Ângela Ferreira at the Portuguese Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, in 2007. Ferreira’s exhibition consisted of a large sculptural object in aluminum, wood and iron complemented by a set of photographs of Jean Prouvé’s project Maison Tropicale installed inside the Fondaco Marcello. The sculptural object defines a penetrable space which seems to evoke a kind of container ship that has not delivered what it should have, leaving open the paths through which one transits from colonialism to a work of art, from a house to an artefact, from Africa to the Western world.