There are almost 200 images that take visitors inside the Amazon forest, in a journey through its rivers, its exuberant biodiversity and its people, represented by indigenous people from different ethnic groups.
The images, in black and white, are the result of seven years of work by the Minas Gerais’ photographer Sebastião Salgado in the Brazilian Amazon. And, presented on large panels at the Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), in Rio de Janeiro, they invite visitors to "look into the eyes" of indigenous peoples Yanomami, Awá-Guajá, Zo'é, Suruwahá, Yawanawá, Marubo, Asháninka, Korubo, and Macuxi, and to reflect on life and on the Amazon ecosystem, so rich and so impacted by human action. An invitation that stirred the Bahian physician Rosa Aurich.
“(The "Amazônia" exhibition) makes us all understand this notion of belonging that we have when we walk around here, see, feel, get emotional and shiver when we see where we come from," says Rosa, who is also a philosophy student and was at the exhibition accompanied by her husband and three children. "The author brings a reflection about the importance of understanding that we are part of a whole. So, if something goes out of place, if something is deconstructed, we will all suffer with it", she concluded.
The exhibition was idealized and conceived by Lélia Wanick Salgado. The collection also includes some previously unpublished images. Before Rio de Janeiro, "Amazonia" went to Paris, Rome and London, in Europe, and also to São Paulo. In a statement released by the Museu do Amanhã, Sebastião Salgado points out that the exhibition “aims to feed the debate about the future of the Amazon forest. It is something that must be done with the participation of everyone on the planet, together with indigenous organizations.”
Diversity - In addition to the printed images, the exhibition also has projections of photographs - one of them, highlighting a composition of portraits of indigenous people, in the midst of their daily lives. And the diversity of the indigenous peoples was what most caught the attention of the engineer from Pernambuco, Helder Rodrigues. "We have an ideia that the people there are very similar. And, here, in the exhibition, I can clearly see this diversity among them. So, this cultural rescue is very important, it gives us a glimmer of hope that this will continue", he said.
The "Amazônia" exhibition can be visited at the Museu do Amanhã until January 29, 2023. Tickets can be purchased at the museum's website.
About the author* - Sebastião Salgado is one of the greatest names in world photography. He was born in the city of Aimorés, in Minas Gerais, on February 8, 1944. He graduated in Economics, but began working as a photographer in the 1970s. From 1993 to 1999, he dedicated himself to register in photos the global phenomenon of mass displacement of people, which resulted in the works Exodus and Portraits of Children of the Exodus, published in 2000 and internationally acclaimed. Together with his wife, the architect Lélia Wanick Salgado, he is the founder of Instituto Terra, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that acts as a center for environmental recovery, based in Aimorés, where he manages the Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) Fazenda Bulcão, a 608.69 hectares area of degraded Atlantic Forest that was recovered by the couple.
*About the author text developed counting on information from Wikipedia.
