Sebastiao Salgado's Amazon at the Fabbrica del Vapore, with more than 200 photographs

From May 12 to November 19, 2023, Sebastiao Salgado’s photography exhibition Amazonia, curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado, will be held at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.

More than two hundred photographs depicting the vegetation, rivers, mountains and people that populate the Brazilian Amazon will be on display: an immersion in the forest accompanied by the audio track composed especially for the exhibition by French musician Jean-Michel Jarre.

Lélia Wanick Salgado, the photographer’s work and life companion who is responsible for the curatorship and set design of the exhibition, said, “Drawing Amazonia, I wanted to create an environment in which the visitor would feel inside the forest, integrated with its exuberant vegetation and with the daily life of the indigenous people. My idea was to present these images, accompanied by relevant texts, in a way that would emphasize the beauty of this nature and its inhabitants, as well as its ecological and human dimensions, all of which are so threatened today and which it is essential to protect and preserve.”

“My wish, with all my heart, with all my energy, with all the passion I possess, is that in fifty years this exhibition will not resemble a testimony of a lost world,” Salgado emphasizes. “The Amazon must continue to live and always have in its heart its indigenous inhabitants.”

The exhibition is developed around two themes: photographs of landscape settings, including aerial views of the forest, flying rivers, torrential rains, and mountains, and photographs of indigenous peoples. Photographs collected in spaces reminiscent of “ocas,” typical indigenous dwellings, vividly evoking the small, isolated human settlements in the heart of the forest. This part is dedicated to twelve indigenous groups that Salgado immortalized in his many travels.

The visit is accompanied by an immersive audio track composed especially for the Amazônia exhibition by Jean-Michel Jarre that brings to life the sounds of the rainforest. With a true symphony of authentic forest sounds, such as the rustling of trees, animal cries, birdsong or the roar of waters, the exhibition also restores the voices and songs of the indigenous people, all from the sound archives of the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva.

Two projection rooms are an integral part of the exhibition: one shows the forest landscape, the images of which flow accompanied by the sound of the symphonic poem Erosão, a work by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959); the other displays portraits of indigenous women and men with music specially composed by Brazilian musician Rodolfo Stroeter in the background.

“This exhibition aims to recreate the environment of the Amazon rainforest that I have lived in, documented and photographed for seven years, giving visitors the chance to identify with and immerse themselves in both its lush vegetation and the everyday life of the native peoples,” Salgado said. “I am particularly happy to return with Amazonia to exhibit in Milan, the city that has always given much space to my work, offering citizens the opportunity to see the images that are a testimony to what remains of this immense heritage, which is in danger of disappearing. So that life and nature can escape further episodes of destruction and depredation, it is up to every single human being on the planet to take part in its protection.”

The exhibition is promoted and produced by the City of Milan/Cultura, Fabbrica del Vapore and Contrasto in collaboration with Civita Mostre e Musei and General Service Security.

For info: https://salgadoamazonia.it/

Hours: Open daily from May 12 to July 15, 2023 and from September 1 to November 19, 2023: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

July 16, 2023 to August 31, 2023, Tuesday to Sunday from 12 to 10 p.m. Closed on Mondays.

Image: Sebastiao Salgado, Indiana Yawanawá. Acre State, Brazil, 2016 (detail) © Sebastiao Salgado/Contrasto

Sebastiao Salgado's Amazon at the Fabbrica del Vapore, with more than 200 photographs

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