It is not today that the Rock in Rio turns his gaze to the Amazon. Since 1985, when it held its first edition, the festival has participated in several sustainability actions, such as the planting of 3 million trees through the Amazonia Live project, or the investment of R$ 5 million in reforestation in the Xingu River region.
But this time it’s different. Rock in Rio, which starts on the 2nd of September, wants to take Amazonian culture into the Rock City .
In a completely immersive space called ship more than 50 artists from different parts of the north of the country, will be there, showing that there is much to look at beyond the green immensity and the political and social issues that are so much debated about the region.
In charge of this curatorship is Pará Roberta Carvalho , invited to sign the artistic direction. By her side, Karla Martins, from Acre, who was responsible for the project’s argument, and also from Pará, Aíla, who participates as musical director.
“The public will be surprised to find the rich cultural plurality of a contemporary Amazon”, says Roberta in a conversation with the CNN .
“These are artists completely connected with the idea of thinking about today and now”, she says. “It is an art that has to do with territory, with being in the world.”
According to Roberta, the biggest challenge in choosing the artists was dealing with a region of continental dimensions and she warns that anyone who passes through the space will find a “very rich and enriching” clipping, focused mainly on diversity. “There are a lot of women, LGBT people, indigenous peoples, the popular culture of the north.”
Inside Nave, a 360-degree audiovisual installation with ceiling-to-floor projections created in partnership with the Natura brand, one of the highlights is the sound system structure, “a great expression of the peripheral culture of the Amazon”.
“Aparelhagem are sound installations where DJs, who play tecnobrega, play their sounds at parties, which take place in a very numerous way in Pará. It’s a musical culture of its own.”
The installation will be shaped like a typical boat from the region and was built by João do Som, a figure known for creating the most traditional sound systems for tecnobrega parties in Pará, for over 40 years.
“The way in which the rhythms of tecnobrega are constructed is very innovative. In a way, it is a way of renewing Brazilian musicality, a different way of thinking about music”.
straight from belém
It was in 2013 that Roberta Carvalho made her first big project, the Amazon Mapping Festival . The event brought together thousands of people in the historic center of Belém to watch the audiovisual and technological projections blending with the city’s architecture.
For the multimedia artist, who started in the arts through photography and video, dialoguing with urban spaces has always been on her radar.
One of the most recent projects, for example, took place at the beginning of the pandemic, when she sought to transport people from São Paulo to another place by projecting the back-and-forth of the rivers of the Amazon in neighboring buildings where she lived in São Paulo.
It was a way she saw of taking “the force of the rivers into a city where the waters were diverted, polluted, landfilled by unrestrained urban growth”.
Her interventions have already traveled to countries such as England, Spain and Belgium, and museums such as the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) have works signed by her in their collections. In November, the artist opens another exhibition, this time in Berlin, Germany. Always taking the Amazon to the world.
Connection with the Amazon
Born in Belém, where she returned after a stay in São Paulo, Roberta believes that distance helps people feel that the Amazon is an inaccessible place.
But she believes that everything is changing. “There are a lot of people, artists, activists, doing amazing things to preserve this place,” she says. “It is time to try to look at the Amazon and break the stereotyped views that people have.”
And this can be applied in everyday life. The artist remembers that it is the Amazon that refreshes Brazil. “The flying rivers that are there now, in the Southeast, in the air you are breathing, are already an example that deep down this connection exists.”
“Our relationship with the forest is daily. From the water that falls from our shower to the teachings of our grandmothers, which andiroba tea [fruto amazônico muito usado pelos indígenas] It’s medicine for a sore throat. It’s a very subtle connection. But deep down it is seen, it is powerful, it is very strong, it is in everyday life.”
Source: CNN Brasil
With 6 years of experience, I bring to the table captivating and informative writing in the world news category. My expertise covers a range of industries, including tourism, technology, forex and stocks. From brief social media posts to in-depth articles, I am dedicated to creating compelling content for various platforms.
