The Amazon is the territory that is bathed by the longest and largest river in the world, the Amazon, which in its 6,400 kilometers of journey to the sea transports a fifth of the planet’s fresh water in liquid form. It is a virgin jungle ecosystem that is home to the greatest biodiversity on Earth, as well as some of the human communities least contaminated by civilization.
But in addition to its genetic and cultural value, the Amazon has incalculable environmental value as a regulator of rainfall throughout the world, and, therefore, as a stabilizer of climate change. The deforestation of its forests to convert them into crop fields or pasture for livestock seriously endangers its environmental function.
To draw attention to this fact, the famous Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado has organized the exhibition Amazonwhich it brings to Barcelona from today until April 20, 2025. In it it shows images of both Amazonian landscapes and some of the tribes that inhabit them.
A warning against free trade and consumerism
Salgado, who has blamed consumerism for the problems in the Amazon, has taken advantage of the presentation of the exhibition to express his rejection of a future Mercosur free trade agreement between Europe and Latin America, which, although it has not been signed at the moment, is currently being debated. in the parliaments of countries of both blocs.
For Salgado, the agreement would endanger the Amazon, a territory that “is larger than all of Europe.” It warns that, if the agreement is signed, the Amazon rainforest “will be deforested and used to create livestock and crops” and assures that “17% [de la citada selva] It is already deforested.” In this regard, as stated a few weeks ago by the Brazilian journalist and writer Eliane Brum, a great disseminator of the Amazonian cultural and biological wealth and activist against the climate crisis, “experts warn that if it reaches 20%, there will be no possibility of reversing it.” the damage to the ecosystem.”
“If we kill the Amazon, we kill life on the planet and, of course, our species,” says Salgado. The photographer, with a dramatic and severe emphasis, fears that politicians will end up signing the agreement because “this will imply that the demand for horticultural and livestock products from Europe with respect to Latin America will skyrocket.” “Do you know where the land will come from to cultivate more land and raise more livestock so that you have cheap products?” Salgado asks himself and immediately responds, while emphatically nodding his head: “No doubt from the virgin forest, which will disappear.” .
More than 200 photographs and music by Jean-Michel Jarre
The exhibition Amazon It is housed in the exhibition space of the Drassanes Reials in Barcelona and displays more than 200 photographs, in large format and backlit, taken over nine years by Salgado. Amazon It is complemented by seven films and a sound setting specially composed for the project by the French musician Jean-Michel Jarre.
To put together the compositions, Jarre has resorted to the archive of sounds from the Amazon jungle located in the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva. As for the films, they consist of seven videos that show images of the life of the Amazonian indigenous communities, while offering the statements of nine leaders of these tribes.
The curator of the exhibition is Lélia Wanick, the photographer’s partner who from the beginning of his career has been in charge of managing and exhibiting Salgado’s work. Wanick explains that Amazon It has previously toured numerous cities and “last week it also premiered in Singapore.” Before, he traveled to London and passed through Madrid, where the current Barcelona production comes from.
Wanick also highlights that “it is an exhibition with relief plates that allow the blind to appreciate the information in Sebastião’s images. Additionally, visitors can get augmented reality lenses that allow them to superimpose complementary information on the images they are observing, in addition to listening to the explanations through headphones.
Large format images
The format of the images, measuring several meters wide, shows the characteristic photographic black and white color of Salgado’s works, which allows him to highlight shapes, brightness and reflections, always showing the contrast between the water and the dense surrounding vegetation. .
He also frequently resorts to aerial photography, which he explains that he has been able to do thanks to the helicopters of the Brazilian Army. Thus, hanging with ropes from the open door of these warehouses, Salgado reveals – and in this way it can be seen in the exhibition – that he has managed to photograph spectacular storms in the endless jungle plain of the Amazon. “But what makes me most proud is having brought to the exhibition something totally unknown such as the mountains of the Amazon, which constitute the highest levels of Brazilian territory,” he adds.
In various images you can see these rock masses and the spectacular waterfalls that start from them. Regarding the recurrence of water in his images, the artist, who at 80 remains in excellent physical and emotional shape, highlights that “the only two ways to approach the Amazon is through water and through the sky, because the forest It is so dense that it is impossible to penetrate it.”
A country of water
But the photographer clarifies that mainly this territory is a country of water, a territory crossed by rivers that leaves countless islands of jungle where up to 133 ethnic tribes live that speak as many languages, which is why he defines it as a reserve of both animal and animal diversity. as human. He concludes, therefore, that the main way to move in this vast territory is by navigating its rivers and tributaries.
He illustrates this assertion with an anecdote: “The first time I entered the Amazon I did so on a ship that left Manaus; We sailed for 21 days and then the captain told us that we had to return if we didn’t want to run out of gas.” They did this in another 21 days of return.
“In total we spent 42 days traveling through the Amazon, longer than it would take you to sail from Barcelona to Tokyo and back,” he emphasizes with his eloquent and seductive speech. It also highlights the importance of the Amazonian river ecosystem, revealing that “while here a flood can raise the water level up to three meters, there it can reach 27 meters.”
He adds that an important part of the Amazon forest “remains flooded for almost six months,” but also highlights the presence of what he calls “an aerial Amazon,” in reference to the water that evaporates from the jungle and forms enormous clouds loaded with water. that enter planetary circulation, influencing the global rainfall regime. He assures that “it is estimated that each tree in the jungle can evaporate up to 1,200 liters of water per day.”
Coexistence with indigenous communities
Salgado also exhibits in Amazon numerous photographs of the daily life of some Amazonian tribes, with their members in various activities that include hunting or fishing. There are many of them images of young girls and boys who look at the camera between indifference and defiance. Salgado explains that it was not easy to get to these isolated towns in the impenetrable jungle.
“First of all you have to request to visit them from Funai, the National Foundation of Indigenous People in Brazil, which is a public foundation linked to the Ministry of the Interior and which has achieved that around 25% of the Amazon territory is indigenous forest protected by the Constitution,” he explains.
From there, a member of Funai will travel to the territory of the ethnic group in question and ask if they accept Salgado’s visit. “It can take a week or two until they meet and decide democratically whether to accept me or not,” he reveals. Then begins a river trip that can last weeks and during which the course of the river narrows, so that although they begin with river vessels, they end with motor boats.
“Once in the area, you have to go through a quarantine set by Funai to eliminate any trace of germs that could affect the indigenous people, because they do not have antibodies against our diseases,” adds Salgado, who concludes that the approach is always complex. and scrupulous. “I have to bring a translator, I have to bring an anthropologist who works with this community and who knows their customs and also someone from Funai to supervise everything,” he concludes.
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