Amazonia,by Roberto Huarcaya , at Rolf gallery in Buenos Aires
In the year 2014, the Peruvian artist, psychologist and photographer, Roberto Huarcaya –along with other artists- started a trip to the Bahuaja Sonene National Park located in the region of Puno, Peru. However, faced with the impossibility of representing the emotions and reactions that the forest provoked to him, Huarcaya went back about seven times more to the reserve. The result: Amazonia. The series of photograms will be presented at Rolf gallery from June 14 to July 27.
The trips to Bahuaja Sonene led the artist to experiment with the primary resources of photography. As a result, its decision was to perform direct shots of the jungle without cameras, but through the photogram technique. Huarcaya explains the artistic process of Amazonia like this:"I was just approaching the forest by direct contact, hugging it with photosensitive paper to find its footprint. It was the most primary of photography in contact with an equal primary space, in natural terms".
The photogram series are made by deploying long photo sensitive paper rolls (1.70m x 30m) around the foliage during the nights. Then, by the direct lighting that Huarcaya manifested with a flash and at the mercy of natural factors - the moon light, the rain, etc.-, the forest was, literally, leaving its own mark on the artwork.
Only in through this way the artist could include all the burden of the experiences and dualities of nature, such as life and death, order and chaos, reality and fiction (all of it, coexisting conditions in that primitive, overflowing, mysterious, mutant and aggressive territory that is the Amazon) in a photographic series of monumental features.
In addition, the development of the images were made with water from the closest rivers and the toxic wastes were sent to Lima to be discarded without damaging the environment.
