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The building finally chosen, measuring and I spent a lot of time thinking that we It is with this reference that I follow the
almost eight thousand square meters, wanted it to be collective, for them to be journey attentive to the urgency of rethinking
was once home to the oldest department women and for each one to carry a world and decolonizing the art space as a place
store in the city of Belém, Y.Yamada, long within themselves, and we achieved it. that can be occupied by bodies of diverse
closed, in the city’s commercial center, Along the way, people arrived, believing artists, understanding Brazil’s intercultural
and came to crown our beliefs as a and I was only able to hold the Bienal das perspective.
Biennial of the Amazons. But not every Amazônias because these people who are Valuing the production of artists in the
coronation is simple. The building needed the Biennale today, believed in my dream Amazon here and now is also highlighting an
several renovations, we had to redo its and started dreaming their own dreams Amazonian body of multiplicity of indigenous
electrical and hydraulic structure, create based on my dream. The Amazon Biennial peoples, blacks, Afro-indigenous people,
a fire system, build rooms, bathrooms, is a desire to build a new possibility of riverside caboclos, women, quilombolas,
accessibility system, refrigeration system, collectivity, or at least a rescue of being lgbtqiapn+ bodies and other artists who
all of this in addition to assembling the collective, of being a village. Luckily, and are embedded in the forest. All with different
exhibition project, in exactly 43 days. All I had a lot of it, despite all the regrets, the nuances combined with a personal language,
this with the budget designed in 2019, obstacles, the different disbelief in us, which enhance this art space – not as a sealed
raised in subsequent years and without affection made it possible for us to resist environment, but as a territory of occupation
any financial help from the municipal and and make it happen. We survived, it was resistant to colonial processes and which
state entities that gained so much from the beautiful, but equally difficult. potentially reinvents itself with the dialogue
Biennale. So, of course, we had financial between cultures, which does not take place
problems and only now will we be able to – It was a success, but there was no in a void of social relations and power.
resolve all the costs. clear support from regional and national In addition to the richness of Amazonian
It is very important for the Bienal das media… why? biodiversity, the cultural diversity that exists
Amazônias, for me as its creator, and for I assume I can’t say if we clearly didn’t in the North stands out. A reality that should
all the professionals who embraced this have support from the media. We were make us aware that there are Amazons and
project, that it takes place in a popular few, with no budget and what we achieved Amazonians and the challenge of thinking of
place. Art is above all a political act. We I believe was enough. Brazil tends not to the region as an extensive humid and complex
need to equip our population, and what pay attention to what is not in place, to tropical forest, with an area equivalent to 8
stronger means than art to do so? We need those who are not part of the mainstream, million km2, as if it were homogeneous,
to requalify our shopping center, but to in addition to the fact that Brazil on the axis, implies making invisible ecosystems inhabited
do this it is urgent that we not gentrify it, does not take us very seriously, so I think by different peoples and their ancestral
that everyone who makes it a reality today, what happened is what normally happens territorialities, which combine their own
stays there. Many questions. with all those who produce on the margins, experiences with the environments of their
on the edges which, by the way, is the vast places of origin.
– The Biennial was a success! majority of Brazilian territory. In this sense, the biennial points out that it
Due to the Herculean work possible is essential not to waste the great collection
thanks to the collective, the Biennale was amazon biennial article [pages 32 to 34] of knowledge and technological complexes of
a success and with this we will be able to the people who inhabit the Northern region of
maintain the building as the institution’s ART WITHOUT BORDERS Brazil. Investing in pluriculturality is necessary,
headquarters, so the next edition of The importance of the Biennale is in the dialogue of knowledge and practices for
the Bienal das Amazônias in 2025 will undeniable in bringing visibility to what the any project for the future of the Amazon. It is
take place there, too, as well as various Amazons have designed and produced with important to highlight that knowledge and
programs in the year 2024. artists already established in the arts circuit intimacy with nature for the people who live
and others with new productions that are
In 2024, in addition to the activities emerging here is a condition of living. There is no doing
we will carry out in our headquarters without feeling and knowing.
building, we will travel with clippings from by vânia leal* Amazons at the Biennial
this first edition to the cities of Manaus In view of this, the importance of the 1st
(am), Macapá (ap), São Luis (ma), Canaã i was born on the banks of the amazon Amazon Biennial is undeniable in bringing
dos Carajás (pa) and Marabá ( shovel). river, in Macapá, in Amapá. Being a fellow visibility to what the Amazons have designed
Just as we will travel by means of a work countryman strengthens the bond I have with and produced with artists already established
boat to up to 30 cities that do not have the Northern region of Brazil because this river in the arts circuit and others with new
cultural facilities and that are on the banks was the first that took me to sail through other productions that are emerging. The event
of Amazon rivers. The itinerary begins to waters that brought me to the 1st Amazon opens paths for timely decentralization of
circulate in April, and the work boat will Biennial. An event that begins with approaches production and enjoyment for all regions
be inaugurated in May and begin sailing to the place itself and invites us to a discursive that comprise the Amazon as a transcultural
in June. construction about the complexity of different territory, with potential for constant exchange
ecosystems that form the biome, such as of experiences with other places in the country.
– How did you assemble this warrior dense dryland forests, seasonal forests, igapó I believe that making visible the political,
team? Did you already know its members forests, flooded fields, floodplains and pioneer social, intellectual and cultural potential
or did they emerge af er research? formations that, naturally, they constitute the of artistic production in the Amazon is a
The Amazon Biennial is a women’s project, multiple times of the Amazonian space. necessary premise on the agenda. Trying to
above all. Yasmina Reggad and I started Debating and reflecting on art in the Amazon standardize art produced in the Amazon is
this drawing back in 2011, a lot of people requires understanding this geographic space taking the opposite path when it comes to the
from my team of producers at the time from different times and environments. Based relationship with nature. Artists, Amazonian
helped with this drawing. Time passed on these differences, Brazilian geographer peoples and forest spirits are guardians and
and I began to meet professionals and and writer Milton Santos becomes a personal models and relationships do not matter. They
partners. The only people we researched, inspiration when he talks about times where position themselves as interlocutors in any
evaluated, were the curators. Yasmina different temporalities coexist simultaneously. debate about the future of the region and

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