CLAUDIA ANDUJAR AT THE KBr FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE PHOTOGRAPHY CENTRE
At the KBr Fundación MAPFRE Photography Centre opens a solo exhibition of the Swiss-Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar (Neuchâtel, 1931). The exhibition, which runs until May 23rd, features two hundred of Andujar's photographs and a series of drawings by members of the communities of the Amazon basin. It is the first time that a solo exhibition of this size has been held in Spain.
Curated by Thyago Nogueira, coordinator of Contemporary Photography at the Moreira Salles Institute in Brazil, the exhibition covers the entire photographic production of one of the key figures in understanding the genocide of the aboriginal communities of the Amazon, mainly the Yanomami people.
Born in Switzerland and educated in New York City, Claudia Andujar has dedicated her entire career to giving international visibility to the destruction of the Amazon and its communities. The first time she came into contact with the Yanomami people —a culture she has fought for throughout her life— Andujar was working on assignment for the Brazilian magazine Realidade (Reality). The year was 1971 and the military government of Brazil, then led by Artur da Costa e Silva, had launched an economic programme involving the exploitation of the natural resources of the Amazon rainforest. It is from that moment that the artist began to dedicate her photographic production to understanding the affected communities and supporting them. In Andujar's words: "I am connected to the indigenous people, to the land, to an essential struggle. All of that touches me deeply. It all seems necessary.”
However, in the same year, disenchanted with the magazine's view of the Amzonia, Andujar decided to work independently. After receiving the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation scholarship in New York, she went to the Catrimani River basin. During the 1970s the photographer travelled repeatedly to the region, producing a unique document of the culture and structures of the communities, as well as the destructive effects that Brazilian and international economic development had on them.
In the same decade, already considered one of the fundamental figures in art and in the struggle for the rights of native peoples, she participated in the organisation of workshops and cultural projects at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). There she had the opportunity to disseminate the artwork of artists such as Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Eugene Smith, among others. During this period she contracted malaria and, confined to her home, began to explore the photographic medium as a metaphysical tool, a perspective that she would use in all her later productions. In relation to this search and her link with the jungle, Andujar wrote: "Perhaps I always sought the reason for life in that essentiality. And that is why I came to the Amazon jungle, instinctively, while I was searching for myself.”
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"Cistelles funeràries", Roraima, 1976, Claudia Andujar. // "Funeral urn", Roraima State, 1976, Claudia Andujar.
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"Naki uxima i Marokoi Wapokohipi thëri ballen i canten a la maloca", Roraima, 1974, Claudia Andujar. // "Naki uxima e Marokoi Wapokohipi thëri dance and sing", Roraima State, 1974, Claudia Andujar.
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"Los yanomami queman sus chozas comunitarias cuando emigran, cuando quieren deshacerse de una plaga o cuando muere un líder importante", Roraima, 1972- 1976, Claudia Andujar. // "The Yanomami may burn their collective house when they migrate, to rid themselves of contagions, or if an important leader dies", Roraima, 1972–1976, Claudia Andujar.
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"La joven Susi Korihana thëri en un arroyo", Roraima, 1972-1974, Claudia Andujar. // "Susi Korihana thëri", Roraima State, 1972-1974, Claudia Andujar.
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"Choza cerca de la misión católica, en el río Catrimani", Roraima, 1976, Claudia Andujar. // "Maloca near the Catholic mission at the Catrimani River", Roraima State, 1976, Claudia Andujar.
The exhibition is divided into eight sections that deal with the different stages of Andujar's work. Through them, the visitor can observe the artist's political commitment to communities and how she moved from the more politicised sectors into the artistic sphere. If we had to define her work, we could place her as one of the pioneers in that intermediate point between photo-documentary and fine art photography. KBr Fundación MAPFRE also brings together audio-visual projections —such is the case, for example, of a reconstruction of the audiovisual exhibition Genocídio do Yanomami: morte do Brasil, from 1989—, books and documents that Andujar produced and compiled throughout her life.
In short, the exhibition that opens the KBr Fundación MAPFRE Photography Centre is an exceptional opportunity, in Europe, to get to know the work of one of the people most involved in aboriginal and environmental causes. Within the current health and climate context, the two hundred works of Claudia Andujar gathered together take on an immeasurable political value that everyone should understand.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Exhibition: Claudia Andujar
Curator: Thyago Nogueira
When: 26/ 02/ 2021 – 23/ 05/ 2021
Where:Centro de Fotografía KBr Fundación MAPFRE
