ARTE AMAZONAS Ein kiio stlerischer Beitrag zur Konferen.z der Vereinten Natiooen iiber Umwelt und Entwicklung ,,Rio-92" Projekt durd,geffihrt vom Goethe-lnsutut mit Umersttitzung des Auswanigen Amts, llonn und in Zusamme11arbeilmit dem Museu de Ane Moderna in Rio de Janeiro Uma contribui~ao artistica para a Conferencia das Na~oes Unidas sobre Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento "Rio-92" Pro]eto realiiado pelo fnstituto Goethe em colabora~o com o Museu de Arte Modemo do Rio de Janeiro e com o apoio do Ministetio das Rela~oes Exteriores ds Repub lica Federal da Alemanha Ausstellungen / Exposi~6es Museu de Arte Modema, Rio de Janeiro Museu de Arte, Brasilia Bienal de Sao Paulo, Parque lbirapuera Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin Maria Fernanda Cardoso geboren in Bogota (Kolumbien), )ebt in Los Angeles und Bogota nasceu em Bogota (Co lomb ia), vive em Los Angeles e Bogota PIRANHAS Installation, lnstala~ao, 170 getrockne te und lackierte Piranhas/ 170 piranhas secas e enverni zadas 141 PIRARUCU ~Okg Fischschuppen/ s_camasde peixe Hohe/ Altura 70 cm ¢ 50cm • 142 - - PfRANHAS Installation, Detail/ Instala~ao. detalhe 170 getrockne te und lackierte Piranhas/ 170 piranhas secas e envernizadas 143 Englische Kurzfassung / Traducao Parcial em Ingles / English Translation Alfons Hug of tropical wood, scrap metal and minerals.Toward the end of the third week, most of the works had been finisb ed: most Arte Amazonas of them three-dimensional (environments, installations An artistic expedition and sclllptures), not a few of which were created in collabo­ ration with local craftsmen, "caboclosM(loc:al peasants) and Almost 500 years separate the quest for discovery under-· fovela residents. taken by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Orellana, who, Antony Gormley's work is a good example of this: a field sailed down the Amazon river in the early 16th century, and. consisting of25,000 fired day figures which were produced the uPsyd1edelic Trip» of his compatriot Pedro Romero., by 60 inhabitants of a poor section of the city of Porto The young artist from Seville calls his installation, which. Velho. Bjorn Loevin also built his ''manioc press• with the was created at the mouth of the Amazon in 1992, i. e, help of a farmer from the Amazon island of" Terra Nova". Columbus Year,nLa Selva Dcseada": the Amazon asan illu-­ Tbe workshop character of the:project is charaeteristicof sion, as a mixture of visual images, sounds and smells from nArte AmazonasM.Th e artists not only worked together in the jungle; impressions captured on a boat trip in the;lnm. the studio; they also spent their free time together, sharing of the Amazon delta.Joseph Conrad's "Heartof Darkness" their experiences and giving each other a helping hand. in a concentrated and less rhreacening version Young arti~ts from Belem and Porto Vc:Lhooffered to work - The Brazilian artist Walterico Caldas bas designed a mm· · as assistants or took part in parallel workshops. This made it pletely different kind oflabyrinth:200 zeros made of70d if.­ easier to integrate the project into the local art scene, It goes fe.rent rypes of Amazon wood; arranged in an infinite· without saying that the studios were open to all who were sequence of rows, they symbolize the grandeur and immen·­ interested in art. sity of the Amazon. lfone takes a closerlook at the words, the following main - Using discarded wood, the Portuguese artist Juliao Sar·· topics emerge: menro constructed a crooked lean-to shack, like thousands. I. The living conditions of the people in Amazon, both ofothers in the rampant wilds at the edges of the big cities in among the"caboclos" and among the people who live in the the tropics. The inside of the hut, which is painted bilious, favelas (slums); green and to which there is oo entrance, consist~ of trash,, 2. The contrast between city and rural life. Urban versus Amazon earth and Littlepcnci I drawings depicting scenes of "primitive" forms of living; sex and violence, visible only through the slats between the­ 3. Virgin and endangered nature; boards: the Amazon as a 'peepshow'. 4. The variety of different species iu the Amazon; - Raffael Rheinsberg from Berlin was hot on the !Tailand 5. The exploitation of resources (c. g. gold). found the legendary 'El Dorado' - which the Spanish and Hutnan intrusion into the natural habitat, tbedestructi.on Portuguese conquerms sought in vain -on the banks of the of the rain forest, for example, which Felix Emile Taunay Madeira River. Taku1g98iron drill bits,so-called "abaraxis" had already made the subject ofh.is painting "Mata rcduzida (the Brazilian for pineapple), taken from "dragas", floating; a carvao" as long ago as 1850, is only one, albeit an impor­ platforms on which legions of"garimpeiros" pan alluvial tant, concern of the artists. The presentation of nature's gold, he arranged them in the fonn of a pineapple plan·­ strength and vitality, the many sides to the Amazon and the tation. creativity of the people who live is an equally important Four different attempts to approach the complex thtm~ concern. "Amazonas'', which lends itself to such an abundance of A few artists tread i.nthe footsteps of the 19th century artistic interpretations- At the invitation of the Goethe natural scientists and undertook expeditions into the Institute in Brasilia, a good two dozen artists from all over jungle: like bis models Henry Bates, Richard Spruce and the world came to the largest river on earth for a three-week Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Dion, an Amerimn, went deep workingvisit in February 1992.The project took as its start-· into the jungle and dug upa piece of earth which be will be ing point the idea of bringing together artists from various examining for unknown insects with the help of a Braz.ilian cultural contexts and having them work directly in the entomo logist dllring the exhibition in the "Museu de Arte Amazon situation itself and the impressions this makes and Modema" in Rio de Janeiro. far away from their familiar studio surround ings. An issue Marina Abmmovic chiseled out si"Xlarge blocks of quartz that has been sufficient!y ill urninated from tl1epolitical and in the inaccessible mines ofMaraba , which she reworked to scientific angle was now to be contemplatttl from a sub-­ form a field of meditation. Bill Woodrow and Raffacl jective, artistic vanrage point, Rheinsberg went to the gold-diggers on the Madeira River How did the artists go about it? and drew their inspiration from them. During the first week in February, three groups moved Mario Cravo Neto traveled on a Brazilian navy hospital into studios which 1·he sponsor and its Brazilian cosponsor ship for a month - from Manausall the way to the Rio Purus had selected: the boathouse of the "Clube do RemoMi n the - and video-filmed the life of the population along the river centre of the ~ity ofB~lem, still heavily marked by colonia­ banks.Elementary exper ienceswhich can only enrich a pro­ lism, tbe saw workshop of the "lnstituto Nacional de Pes­ ject such as "Arte Arnazonas". quisas da Amazonia" research facility in Manaus and,, finally, the locomotive hall of the defunct nMadeira­ Mamon!" jungle railway in Porto Velho. The artists spent Untou ched and endangered nature the first few days getting to know the respeni ve city and the vicinity; they met with Amazon experts, visited universities,, "The Chinese were hired to clear land, they penetTated the museums of natural history and research facilities, held dis­ jungle. The Germans did the cleaning-up work and leveling. cussions with representatives of the Indios and embarked The Barbadians were preoccupied with reinforcing the rail­ on excursions into the jungle. way embankment. The Spaniards who came from Cuba's In the weeks thereafter, the artists completed thei.rproject repressive colonial system were fore.menru 1d stood guard. designs and garhered material which is, in all cases, of local Everyone had his designated job, the working day was ll origin: things they found on the streets and markets,species hours long, whereby everyone has a right to a break at noon. 216 But all of the men, reg;irdless of their natiooal icy. bad the Has Man granted nature a brief respite, ha\ same look abou t them. All of them looked ragged, over­ Tropics" of Claude Levi-Strauss grown brighter, w ,.. worked, scrawny and weak like convicts who had been Ribeiro too quick in striking up his ''Tropical Requiem"? sentenced to hard labour." Ce1tainly not, if one considers the plightofZ00,000 Indios. Today there is no letup in the invasion ofcivilization imo The survi:val of a few of the )70 remaining ethnic groups - an u.ntouched world, described here by Marcio Souza in h.is there wese almost 300 of tl1em at the turn or the century - is novel Mad Maria, which narrates the story of the con­ in jeopardy, others are forced to share their habitat and sur­ struction of the railroad link from Madeira to Mamore roundings with hundreds of thousands of "garimpeiros" (1874-1912). The Amazon is covered with the traces of who arc themselves outcasts in their own society. And tl1e exploitation by the western world: Whereas the symbo ls of latter are also moving ever deeper into the jungle, causing progress at the turn of the 19th century were the opera consid erable damage to the environment with their uncon­ houses of Belem and Manaus, or the "Casa de Fierro" trolled gold-digging. Several rivers are already so polluted immortalized in literature by Vargas Liesa, which was with mercury that the fish are now virtually inedible. brought from Germany to Iquitos by a Peruvian rubb er Another problem which was of concern to more than a baron, today they are the huge dams and mines.