Page 106 - ARTE!Brasileiros #58

ENGLISH VERSION DEMOCRACY AND REPARATION

cruising at reduced speed, just a few meters from the – sublime, with beautiful striking contrasts, with tormented over time, we lost the transmission of
trees. “We had such heavy rain that the boat stopped and imposing skies – do not trigger the impulse to do history orally; worse, we have lost the power of listening.
due to a total lack of visibility. The cloud formations something about it so that the biome does not travel the Of the silence, of the time that passes peacefully without
were so beautiful, so voluminous and so dramatic that opposite way of Dante. Possibly, the danger of presenting the need to rush it. Over time we lose our ability to look
they made us feel the size of our insignificance.” Piranas the biome as a slice of the sacred is that, in this kind of at our faces to see our marks, to understand our being
and giant pythons prevented him from diving into the narrative, even after the end of times there is still the and being in the world.
Rio Negro. Even so, Salgado managed to bathe in the second coming of the savior. Following this line, the threat But it is this lost time, this voice that sweetens the
humidity of the aerial rivers – torrents of steam that form of messianic discourse grows. Passivity is not thought ears, that we find again in the book by reporter and
over the forest –, photographing them from within. From to be so parlous. Commitment collection becomes a photographer Ricardo Beliel, Memórias Sangradas:
above, the photographer had the dimension of the largest gentleman’s agreement. vida e morte nos tempos do cangaço, Editora Olhares
mountains in Brazil: “The Amazon we were used to was a His Instituto Terra, founded in 1998 with his wife and and support of Rumos Cultural.
flat territory, with rivers that snaked through it; a part of partner, architect and environmentalist Lélia Wanick The publication recounts a story that has long
the Amazon really is a big plain, but a considerable part Salgado, meets the urgency that another Brazilian biome permeated the Brazilian imagination, having been told
is formed by an incredible amount of mountains”. Such requires, the Atlantic Forest. The institute is located in the in books, photos and films: that of the cangaço. The
aerial landscapes, rare in photographic documentation, city of Aimorés, in Minas Gerais, where the photographer’s movement that dominated the northeastern hinterland
were explored with the help of the Brazilian army, which family’s old cattle farm was located and, in just over from 1920 until it was definitively annihilated in 1938 by
allowed Salgado to immerse himself in their missions. 20 years, it made possible the planting of more than the troops of the then government of Getúlio Vargas,
According to him, the distances are such that only the 2 million tree seedlings (using more than 290 native in the famous battle of Angico in Sergipe. The saga of
military, who cover the entire country and who have species from the Atlantic Forest) within the Bulcão Farm, Virgolino Ferreira da Silva, known as Lampião (1898-1938),
dozens of scattered bases, can reach these places. an area recognized as a private natural heritage reserve Maria Bonita (1911-1938) and his gang, composed among
“The Brazilian army has a very interesting characteristic (rPPN). During that time, the institute also invested in the others by Corisco, Dadá, Pancada, Labareda, Volta Seca
in the Amazon: the vast majority of the body, which are recovery of springs in the Rio Doce Hydrographic Basin and Jararaca is perhaps one of the most important and
the soldiers, the army base, is indigenous”, says Salgado. and in the production of native seedlings – 6 million so well known in Brazilian history.
“They know the forest, they come from the forest. And far – for its own and third-party reforestation. And it was after this story that journalist Ricardo
what is the function of an army? It is to defend national Furthermore, by 2023, Terra hopes to have completed Beliel and his wife, visual artist and filmmaker Luciana
sovereignty. And the Amazon, the biome, represents the first phase of its Atlantic Forest gene bank project. The Nabuco, embarked. “It all started in 2007, when I did a
almost 50% [49.29%] of the Brazilian territory”. For Salgado, program started in 2018 and its objective is to guarantee story for a European magazine called Geo. Together
the level of banditry in the current Amazon is worrying the continuity of species found in Vale do Rio Doce, with a Spanish reporter we went up the São Francisco
and makes such a defense, from the army, essential. “The highlighted by the institute itself as “an area of highly River”, tells the author. It was there that Beliel recalled
current government, which is a government related to degraded Atlantic Forest with the threat of extinction his childhood, when his mother, a history and geography
the militias, has facilitated and brought violence to the of several native species”. The logistics and progress teacher, liked to tell her family the narratives of Brazilian
Amazon in an incredible way.” He warns, however, of the of the enterprise are attributed to Lélia, who signs the culture, and listened to the stories of those who still lived
differences between the young officers who are in the expography of the recent show at Sesc Pompeia, as there. It was also there that he learned that there were
forest and the so-called ‘reserve military’. “What is a well as the editing, design and production of the book remnants of the Canudos movement. The then boy,
contradiction, you see, the participation of officers in the Amazônia. It was even her idea that the exhibition should who delightedly listened to his mother talk about the
current predatory government, mainly reserve officers of be filled with music. “Amazon is a very musical region, northeastern countryside, about the sertão, through
the Brazilian army - who are old generals still related to the indigenous people are very musical, they sing a lot, books by Graciliano Ramos and Rachel de Queiróz,
the dictatorship, old generals still very close to a certain there are many festivities and many instruments. Lélia among many other stories, expanded his imagination.
right-wing idea. There is a brutal difference with the new traveled a lot in the Amazon with me and she absolutely That same year, in fact, in the same week, Ricardo Beliel,
officers, with the base, which are the soldiers, who are wanted us to bring music to the exhibition”. With the as a freelancer, returned to the northeastern hinterland
there inside the Amazon defending it”. purpose of creating the soundtrack to serve as the guiding to produce some articles on the subject of cangaço. He
The photographer recalls that, during his career, his thread of the exhibition, Jean-Michel Jarre, a popular managed to publish some articles in magazines, but it
contact with Brazilian troops took place more outside composer and producer in France (considered a pioneer was only in 2014 that he invited Luciana Nabuco to travel
the country than inside the national territory, whether in of electronic music), had access to the collections of the together through the northeastern hinterland, look for
United Nations missions in Angola, or in the Bosnian War, Museum of Ethnology in Geneva, which recovered sounds the places where Lampião’s gang went and try to talk
where soldiers participated unarmed as observers of the from the entire Amazon for years. Indigenous songs and to the people who inhabited those places, to listen to
UN itself. This contact created in him an admiration that instruments also appear in another sound experience, their stories, and take photographs. From 2007 to 2019
compels him to make the following political request: “For the projection with portraits of members of the tribes there were nine trips, 11 thousand kilometers traveled
me, the Brazilian left will have to change [in relation to that Salgado visited. The Pau Brasil group, from São by car, seven states visited and many, many, recorded
the army]. The Brazilian left still condemns the Brazilian Paulo was in charge of the music in this space along testimonies and photographed faces and places: “We
army [for its participation in the 1964 coup], but I think with Marlui Miranda. A final projection of landscapes wanted to hear the story of these people. We know that
it would have to change, it would have to make a move pays homage to maestro Heitor Villa-Lobos by playing much has already been said and written, but we wanted to
towards the army, because by excluding the army and “Erosão (Origin of the Amazon River)”. tell this story for ourselves as a great reportage, a social
excluding itself from the army, it leaves place for the At the end of Amazônia, Salgado appeals: “To survive memory of that time.” Luciana Nabuco’s support was
extreme right to enter there as it did with the Bolsonaro as a culture, these peoples cannot be mere objects of fundamental. Born in Belém do Pará, she, like Beliel, grew
government”. In Salgado’s view, the defense of this anthropological interest. [They] must contribute and also up listening to her father tell stories of his long journey, of
movement comes from the essentiality of the armed benefit from the sustainable development of the Amazon family culture. As the researcher and social psychologist
forces in all countries of the world; “it’s a technical body through its extraordinary botanical wealth, exotic spices, Ecléa Bosi stated: “Oral memory is a precious instrument
that the country depends on, which is an important, nuts or plants with medicinal and cosmetic properties.” In if we want to constitute the chronicle of everyday life”.
strong institution that has to be neutral”. this last address in Amazônia, the defense of indigenous At each return, upon hearing the stories they had
rights and the preservation of the biome goes hand in recorded, they decided that the semantics of the
a return to the planet hand with pragmatism, considering that “according characters’ speech should be preserved. The interviewees,
At 78, Salgado believes “in the idea of comprehensiveness, to satellite images, - in contrast to private lands, or most of them nearly centenarians, are descendants of the
of community; the opponent is not an enemy that you gigantic national parks and even public lands owned cangaço era, characters from a cycle of Brazilian history
have to kill in radicalism, I think the opponent is a future by the State - there were very few occurrences of fire or that has not always been well remembered.
partner that you have to bring, to conquer”. acts of deforestation within the indigenous reserves”. And In this way, Ricardo Beliel began to write the book,
On the other hand, an injection of a certain type of as the photographer himself had brought to attention intertwining his vision as a journalist – which he is and
more radical activism can be substantial to the issues of before: “When a part of the forest is cut down, it is as if always was – with the testimonies of the 43 characters
the environment and its preservation, after all “neutral that forest has no value… We throw it on the ground, set he selected to be part of the book. To the writings he
ecology becomes an accomplice of the injustice of a it on fire, destroy it to establish livestock”. And how much added his photos, but he also went after the photos that
world where healthy food, clean water, pure air and does the forest cost? “The price that is necessary to put the characters themselves kept in their homes. There is a
silence are not the rights of everyone but the privileges of in place to rebuild that hectare of forest”, he replies. “If lot of talk about the Lebanese Benjamin Abrahão (1890-
the few who can afford them”, as suggested by Eduardo 10,000 hectares of forest are cut down, you are cutting 1938), who photographed and filmed the gang in the 1930s,
Galeano. In this sense, unbridled modernization worries down more than 200 million dollars. Never in the history but many others photographed the movement without
both, “today we no longer belong to our planet…” laments of this rural property – which will settle where the forest due recognition, since at the time talking about credit in
Salgado, highlighting the level of dependence of an was destroyed – will it be produced the amount of capital photography was almost non-existent. Often what appeared
urbanized society on the expressway world. “We don’t that was destroyed”. was the name of the newspaper’s owner. Beliel found these
know how to live without the assistance that was created images in the interviewees’ own homes and reproduced
around us, we lost this ability in relation to the earth, books MEMory [PAGES 86 to 88] them even without retouching, without bringing a new life
in relation to the planet and I think we would have to to the photograph, but preserving the marks of time that
organize the return to the planet, we would have to learn THE CANGAÇO had already been incorporated into the images.
from the planet”. The result, although in a journalistic tone, reminds
In Amazônia, is Salgado’s criticism sufficiently YESTERDAY AND TODAY a little of the great epic books where stories of death,
categorical? By choosing to highlight only life in the love, struggle, revenge, encounters and disagreements
forest, does the photographer run the risk of presenting Book Bled Memories: Life and Death in the are retold. Hence the title idea. A book built by listening
it as immortal? Cangaço Times, by Ricardo Beliel, brings – in fact, this is the role of the journalist, be it text or
“The Amazon is still a paradise, it is still one of the together photos and testimonies recorded photography: “This book is the rebirth of the reporter
most wonderful places on the planet, and it has to be by the journalist over the years touring the I never stopped being”, says Beliel. But it is Luciana
divine. The Amazon is paradise and paradise has to Nabuco who, in the form of poetry in the preface and
be defended, we cannot throw paradise into hell”, he northeastern hinterland afterword of the book, reminds us that “we are losing
defends. But apart from the noble merit of the question, history because we are failing to listen to our elders.
perhaps the dilemma lies in the possibility that the images By SIMoNEttA PErSICHEttI They are our primary sources.”
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