2023-10-18 13:22:48
Amazon is the exhibition inaugurated by the socio-documentary photographer Sebastian Salgado (Minas Gerais, Brazil 1944) after seven years of journey that led him to discover remote corners of the Amazon jungle and its inhabitants. Amazon It can be visited at the Fernán Gómez Theater. Cultural Center of the Villa – Plaza de Colón in Madrid, until January 14, 2024.
People in the cheapest seats, applaud;
The rest of you can ring your jewels.
John Lennon in the Royal Gommond, 1963.
These sarcastic phrases of the great Lennon in front of, among others, the queen mother of the British Empire, have remained as a legacy of an artist without mincing words and with sharp thinking to detect and denounce the two angles from which human beings perceive and we use art: denunciation and/or mere décor.
The extraordinary concert organized by the National Auditorium of Spain for the exhibition of the Brazilian photographer Sebatiao Salgado witnessed the magnetism of an artist in a state of grace who took the stage and drew attention to the responsibility of preserving the planet on which we live. Art as complaint. The Amazon is consumed by agricultural interests, and the previous government of Brazil, led by the ultra-conservative Jair Bolsonario, represented a painful failure in environmental policies because its blindness, lack of civility, lack of culture and obtuse vision of the world did not allow it to do more.
The Yanomami shaman talks with the spirits before the ascent of Mount Pico da Neblina. State of Amazonas, Brazil. 2014 . Photo: Sebastião Salgado
On October 14, the National Orchestra of Spain offered an extraordinary concert in its symphony hall with compositions by Philip Glass y Heitor Villa-Lobos, accompanied by the projection of photographs by Salgado. The Brazilian Simone Menezes to the baton and the Italian-Brazilian soprano Camila Provenzale They shone alongside two hundred black and white photographs that denounce the folly of human beings. On the big screen, dignified and beautiful inhabitants of the Amazon jungle looked directly into the faces of the very European attendees, almost asking what we do with their jungle, their home. And why don’t we see the relationship between there and here. The humidity produced by the world’s green roof is directly linked to the climate in Europe. This is a fact, it is not progressive goodism.
Thus, the first part of the evening program presented the Prelude of Brazilian Bachianas no. 4 (from also Brazilian Villalobos) y Metamorphosis I of Aguas da Amazonia of Phillip Glass. The second, The Amazon forest from Villa-Lobos. The message of Salgado’s art could not be more direct, without reservations. It is not abstraction or decoration, but a cry for the survival of the human race, a call to action, a act of love for those who are going to inherit the garbage dump that we have turned this planet into: children, nieces, grandchildren. Some very powerful images that are Pure poetry. The Amazon seen from a condor flight, the interior of the majestic jungle captured from canoes, gatherings of beautiful women posing for the camera, warrior men preparing and clouds in the shape of sailboats, nuclear bombs, geysers.
Salgado is internationally recognized for his impeccable technique and his militancy without complexes. In an attempt to set an example, and contribute their grain of sand to the recovery of deforested areas, Sebastião and his wife Lélia Wanick started the project in 1998. Terra Institute with the firm purpose of reforest the Bulcao Hacienda where the photographer grew up (watershed of the Doce River Valley, Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil). The Salgados have planted almost three million trees that have returned the area to its original ecosystem; Hundreds of species of plants and animals coexist today as living proof that hope can still be found. Another of his projects, the Bosque Zurichaims to plant one million seedlings of 120 endemic species over 8 years, an area of 170 hectares that will guarantee the self-sufficiency y biodiversity of the forest over the next few decades.
The exhibition that we urge you to enjoy and use as a catalyst for environmental responsibility is seasoned with a unique soundtrack courtesy of the incomparable Jean Michel Jarrethemes that coexist with jungle sounds captured by the Geneva Museum of Ethnography. The landscapes alternate with portraits of some of the more than 300,000 indigenous people who inhabit those lands. All this makes Amazon an experience in which to immerse yourself through the senses.
Archipelago of the Mariuá River. Black river. State of Amazonas, Brazil. 2019. Photo: Sebastião Salgado
However, the irony of the night was the presence of figures from politics and industry made in Spain, all of them staunch defenders of parties that they deny climate change systematically, just because, because a script imposes it, denying all scientific evidence or artistic denunciation. Protective, foolish and irresponsible, many of those present voted in municipal elections for the one who confessed in front of primary school students that he preferred to save Notre Dame from the flames rather than the Amazon (“…because we live in Europe”). The representative of American Indian Movement during the COP25 Climate Summit, approached Martínez-Almeida to remind him that
The Amazon is more important than a church; I tell you from the heart.
Mario Agreda
It was of no use, trees continue to be cut down here in the capital of the dry kingdom.
Other people marveled at the beauty of the photographs and the music, but they voted – and will continue to do so – for the one who proposed a little plant on every balcony in Madrid to combat climate change (her brother must have put up a nursery, or something like that). The very powerful narrative of Salgado is not going to change their minds. Art as mere decoration fails to penetrate obtuse minds (remember that Joan Miró in that bathroom). May the gods protect us because these VIP people will not be the ones to do it.
From here, many questions, but an urgent need: to delight in beauty, but also to question this lifestyle of ours that is killing us. Art as a cry It is not mute, it must be more militant, increasingly alive. Photography, cinema or literature walk hand in hand with science (artists and scientists, those true priests) and demand from us a real commitment. For those who lack motivation, Salgado’s exhibition at the Fernán Gómez will surely give them a lot to think, feel, and reflect on. An unmissable event, at reasonable prices, affordable for everyone.
During the Covid confinement of 2020, the planet already let us know how little it will miss us when the consequences of our actions loom over us. Art will always be there, like a cry, to motivate us and remind us how fragile and small we are. It’s time to Act. Of think before speaking and voting for politicians, before demanding responsibilities from those who pollute the most. Master Salgado tells us that the path is through thinking and action. The jungle and its inhabitants are watching us to see what we are going to do now.
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