_ART & CULTURE
LOCATION: MADRID
Internationally renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado presents Amazônia, a series of breath-taking photographs dedicated to the largest rainforest in the world and its indigenous inhabitants. Part of an international tour that has already captivated 1.4 million visitors, the exhibition is currently on view in Madrid at the Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa.
Amazônia is a unique exhibition in which large-format photographs are combined with music and the sounds of nature to create a multi-sensory experience.
An opportunity to travel through art
For seven years, Salgado travelled the Brazilian Amazon by air, land and water, capturing the terrain, rivers, mountains as well as the diversity of the cultures that live there.
Curated and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado, Amazônia immerses you in this remote corner of the world through more than 200 powerful black and white photographs.
Salgado takes us into the heart of a lush and ecologically diverse realm. Through his lens, he captures the rainforest’s contours, dramatic clouds above the canopy of trees, the sinuous river, immense waterfalls, flying rivers, imposing mountains, stormy skies, exuberant vegetation and its people.
His photographs draw attention to the unparalleled beauty of this vast region and underline the importance of the need to protect the Amazon ecosystem and the indigenous communities who live there.
Along with the images, the exhibition includes enclosures representing indigenous homes called “ocas” displaying stunning portraits of the people of the Amazon and the ways of life. This part is dedicated to 12 indigenous groups that Salgado has immortalised in his numerous journeys: Awa-Guajá, Marubo, Korubo, Waurá, Kamayurá, Kuikuro, Suruwahá, Asháninka, Yawanawá, Yanomami, Macuxi and Zo’é. In the ocas, movies show indigenous leaders discussing their lives, customs and the problems they face as the guardians of the forest.
A multi-sensory experience
The visit is accompanied by a unique soundtrack composed by Jean-Michel Jarre with natural sounds from the Amazon, such as the rustling of trees, the cries of animals, flowing rivers, birdsongs, rushing waterfalls and chants of the natives, captured by the Geneva Museum of Ethnography.
Amazônia is an opportunity to enrich our understanding of this majestic rainforest, reflecting on the fragility of the ecosystem and the importance of protecting and preserving the life and nature found within it.
From 13 September 2023 to 14 January 2024, the photography exhibition Amazônia by Sebastião Salgado will be held at the Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa in Madrid