AT THE LATIN AMERICAN PAVILLION - 54TH VENICE BIENNALE

INSTALLATION VIEW - PHOTOGRAPHY RODOLFO FIORENZIA

ENTRE SIEMPRE Y JAMÁS – Between Forever and never

Latin American Pavilion - IILA at 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia
in the occasion of Latin American Bicentenary of Independence

Alfons Hug, Paz Guevara

The video by María Rosa Jijón begins with maps of the Amazonian region of Ecuador and Brazil. The maps, which were one of the most valuable tools for the conquest of the continent, do not appear distant from their colonizing function. While these cartographies allow for the precise localization of Amazonian rivers and routes, there appear the chilling denouncements of the indigenous organization COICA (Confederation of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Watershed), announcing the imminent threat of an ambitious multinational project that seeks to join the Pacific and the Atlantic through the construction of a navigable route that would cross the Amazon, between Manta (Ecuador) and Manaus (Brazil), as an alternative to the Panama Canal.

The beautiful and tranquil Río Napo, a real territory that underlies these new abstract atlases, will be used as a part of this new Amazonian waterway. Jijón’s work underscores the paradox between modern progress and the devastation of the natural reserves, the displacement of the local indigenous communities and the impoverishment of the ecosystem. The song that emerges from the images of this video is that of an indigenous cleansing ceremony, realized by a shaman named Quichua, from the Limoncocha region of the Río Napo. Although the ritual song drives away the bad energies, the possibility for sustainable development for Latin America remains without a solution.