PINTA MIAMI 2023: A PORTAL TO THE AMAZON

By Mercedes Abella | November 24, 2023

MIAMI

Amazonia is a Pinta Miami project curated by Félix Suazo that proposes a visual expedition through the Amazon, crossing countries, cultures and ecological identities. As a Special Project, Amazonia emphasizes Pinta's commitment as an international platform for Latin American art.

PINTA MIAMI 2023: A PORTAL TO THE AMAZON

Amazonia allows us to venture into the aesthetic languages of the lungs of the world. The works included here are organized into themes that conceptually intertwine the experiences, concerns and aesthetics of the Amazon. The representations, sometimes symbolic and sometimes figurative, explore ideas of home, biodiversity, Western threats and cosmological memories. The protagonists of this installation are the forest, the river, the jaguar and the indigenous communities.

 

Between photographs, textiles and paintings, patterns of deep ecocentric commitment are manifested, revealing the synergy between human habits and the circularity of nature. The Amazon rainforest is home to 30 million people and 25% of the world's biodiversity; the video installation Amazonia celebrates its pluralities and evidences its conflicts.

 

Two centuries of transcendence and transformation, exchange and learning can be read between the works. On the one hand, the photographs by Segall, Andujar and Brändli provide us with personal and concrete views of semi-automatic interpretation. Performances such as Pontes' inhabit resistance and the stimulation of cultural cues, and Milton Becerra's Jaguar Hunting embodies the relationship between hunter and hunted.

Amazonian mystical networks, the abstraction of knowledge and spirituality are represented in the textile works of Chonon Bensho, who weaves the world of dreams and intuition with the mobility of water. The installation also features works by Eielson, whose textile knots and intertwining are an account of Amazonian narratives and spirals.

In the paintings and drawings of Esbell, Acelino Tuin Huni Kuin and Abel Rodriguez we find saturated expressions of life. The maloka, the birds and the jungle configure dynamics and traditions that celebrate the interaction with otherness. On the other hand, the works of Denilson Baniwa and Nola Hatterman accentuate the passage of time and the rituality of memory.

Amazonia reminds us of the strength of circularity, the richness of exchange and the philosophical depth of ecocentrism, where man is not the center but part of it. This Special Project, in video installation format, celebrates diversities while tracing axes between the generosities and visual expressions of the largest tropical rainforest on the planet.

Artists: Claudia Andujar, Lothar Baumgarten, Milton Becerra, Adrian Balseca, Denilson Baniwa, Chonon Bensho, Bárbara Brändli, Antonio Briceño, Juan Downey, Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Jaider Esbell, Sara Flores, Ann Gollifer, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Nola Hatterman, Victor Hugo Irazábal, Ana María Mazzei, Joseca Mokahesi, Emerson Pontes, Tabita Rezaire, Abel Rodríguez, Thea Segall, Misha Vallejo, Aubrey Williams.

 

Countries represented: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Suriname, British Guyana and French Guyana.