Terra Firme
2016
Terra Firme was developed during the Labverde Artistic Immersion Program in Amazonia, at the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve in Manaus, Brazil, in September 2016.
In Amazonian geography, terra firme designates the elevated areas of forest that never flood, unlike the lowland plains, and where walking is possible. It was in this terrain that the artist carried a camera for an entire day, allowing it to register both fixed and moving frames — visual and bodily readings that echo the movements of the human eye.
The resulting video alternates between sharp focus and blurred vision, a device that seeks to reconstruct the unreal sensation of being immersed in the forest. These uninhabited zones, like much of the Amazon, recall a time before the concept of landscape existed — before the image, when humans did not see their surroundings as something apart from themselves. For the Indigenous inhabitant of wild nature, “landscape” is not what lies around them, but the distant view towards the stars.
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Residency program: Labverde - Artistic Immersion Program in Amazonia, 2016.
Exhibitions: Terra Firme, Colégio das Artes, Coimbra, Portugal, 2018. / Terra Firme, Baró Gallery, São Paulo, 2016.
Exhibition text: Lilian Fraiji, Colégio das Artes, Coimbra. 2018
Fairs: LOOP Fair 2019, Almanac Barcelona, Spain.
