In July 2018, I took part in LabVerde, an artistic residency in the Amazon rainforest that aims to talk about art, science and nature through a short and intense 10-day immersion divided between river and forest reserve experiences.
This series of work makes reference to ‘Dark Earth’ (Terra Preta de Índio), a trace of the rational use of soil found throughout the Amazon. Archaeologists inform that the ‘Dark Earth’ is typical of ancient settlements where native people's presence created this soil for thousands of years, spontaneously, transforming the soil into a high-level of fertility, which is not characteristic of the region. My research seeks to speak of this fertility, resulting from a harmonious coexistence between human beings and the surrounding nature. I started an experimental record of tree textures on my own skin and then I left a site-specific piece of the memory of my body in the reserve, trying to follow the embrace of a vine on a tree. An effort to bow to nature, thus removing the artist from the classic distanced place of subject, and the landscape as an object to be devoured. Comments are closed.
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