Studio Orta

The double screen 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 creates a blanket of water vapor stretching 6,000 kilometers to the Atlantic Ocean. A symphony of insects and howler monkeys signals the rising sun as the cloud dissipates, revealing the expanse of the green lungs of planet Earth. The soundtrack opens with the words of Gaia, “My centre is everywhere, everything huge and hung together” signaling the interconnected nature of this immense biodiverse organism.

The film follows Lucy + Jorge Orta on the Andes glaciers, tecking along the ancient Inca paths of the Trocha Union, through elfin forests lined with lichen, following the glacial mountain streams. The artists descend several thousand meters into the dense green canopy and to the Amazon river basin. Their journey is accompanied by a poetic dialogue between Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life, and Progress who speaks of scientific rationale. Their final words remind the viewer 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 voice actors.