Amazonia [Film]

Date: 2010
Matériaux: High definition diptych projection with quadrophonic sound
Dimensions: Projection ratio 16:9. Duration 23'40''
Exhibition history: 2023 Cuneo, Italy; 2012 Fondation Groupe EDF, Paris, France; PAV Turin, Italy; 2010 Natural History Museum London, UK
Courtesy: © Lucy + Jorge Orta. Filmed by Jorge Orta and Matt Wrainright. Edited by David Bickerstaff. Poetry written by Mario Petrucci. Commissioned by the Natural History Museum London

Amazonia draws the viewer into the Amazon rainforest through stunning imagery and audio recorded during their 2009 expedition to the Peruvian Amazon. We are guided into the rain forest by the voice of Gaia and as the cloud forest dissipates, her unusual conversation with Progress prompts the viewer to reflect on the fragile ecological balance that connects humans and non-humans. “My centre is everywhere - Everything ­ huge and hung together”. As the poetic story unfolds, the viewer climbs to the Amazon river’s glacial sources at 4,800 metres in the Andes, trekking through the grassland above the tree line, penetrating the elfin and mountain cloud forests, and descending several thousand metres through the Amazon rainforest. The final words remind us that humans have the power to change the future “Touch the nation any Human Tug - At any moment Our future will move”. 

Amazonia was commissioned as part of a solo exhibition of the work by Lucy + Jorge Orta (Amazonia, 2010) by the contemporary art program at the Natural History Museum London. The poetry was written by eco-poet Mario Petrucci and the film directed and edited by David Bickerstaff.