Studio Orta

The film Amazonia is a poetic response to a scientific expedition undertaken by Lucy + Jorge Orta to the Amazon rainforest in 2009, bearing witness to the effects of climate change on the biosphere.

On the eastern edge of the Peruvian Andes, the sun rises over the Amazon. The cloud forest’s blanket of water vapor stretches 6,000 kilometers to the Atlantic Ocean. A symphony of insects and howler monkeys signals the rising sun as the clouds dissipate, revealing the expanse of the green lungs of planet Earth. The first lines of the spoken poetry signal the interconnected nature of this immense biodiverse organism. In the words of Gaia, “My centre is everywhere, everything huge and hung together.”

Along the ancient Inca paths of the Trocha Union, through elfin forests lined with lichen, and following the glacial mountain streams, the artists descend into the dense green canopy several thousand meters to the Amazon river basin. Their journey is accompanied by the dialogue between Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life, and the scientific rationale of Progress. 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 for the artists’ exhibition Amazonia at the Natural History Museum in London, curated by Bergit Arends for the museum’s contemporary art program. The film was edited by David Bickerstaff from footage and audio recorded by Lucy + Jorge during their expedition. The spoken poetry was written by eco-poet Mario Petrucci and performed by actors for the film.