Indigenous filmmaker Takumã Kuikuro, who regularly collaborates with People's Palace Projects, is working with ACASAGRINGOCARDIA studio to take the Brazilian Amazon to the heart of the exhibition through an emersive audio-visual installation, OCA RED.
The exhibition invites the world to connect to the Xingu way of life, celebrating indigenous, communal ways of living in harmony with the earth, and sharing a vision of the future. The installation will open to the public at the Central Pavilion of the Venice Biennale on Saturday 22 May 2021.
Supporting indigenous people to thrive
The exhibition is also a cry for survival from filmmaker Takumã Kuikuro, for the indigenous people and the forest. After fifty years of limited protection in Brazil, the rights of indigenous people and the survival of indigenous cultures and knowledge are coming under increased threat.
Takumã Kuikuro said: "We believe our relationship with the forest and our ability to live in harmony with the earth can offer important answers to some of the world's pressing challenges. In our villages we know that whatever you do to the natural world you ultimately do to yourself. Understand us. Respect us. Value us. Our existence saves your life."
To close the Biennale in November, two members of the Kuikuro will bring an experience of the annual Kuarup ritual that takes place annually, marking the passing of those lost during the year and celebrating the joy of life. This collaborative exhibition is a result of an arts exchange programme between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Brazil and the UK, organised by People's Palace Projects.
Professor Paul Heritage, Director of People's Palace Projects said: "Museums and galleries have historically been heavily implicated in colonising Indigenous cultures and destroying the vital links between people, cultures and land. We believe these same institutions have a crucial role to play in raising international awareness about Indigenous peoples as essential protagonists in the fight against climate change and in resisting the destruction of their traditional ways of living."
