Salgado al MaXXi: "the virus threatens the Amazon Indians"

ROME - The coronavirus is likely to give the coup de grace to the indigenous people of the Amazon already threatened heavily by the systematic attack on the planet's large green lung caused by miners, loggers and livestock farmers. We therefore need an international movement that puts political pressure on the government of the Brazilian President Bolsonaro to avoid the contagion and destruction of the people who live in the forest, exposed even more to the virus for their inability to develop antibodies. This is the appeal launched by the great photographer Sebastiao Salgado with his wife Lélia Wanick, who today reaffirmed the importance of this battle in an online interview with the president of the MaXXi, Giovanna Melandri, which was disseminated on the social channels of the museum. The large exhibition space of the capital next year will host a world preview of the exhibition of images taken by Salgado among the tribes of the Amazon for a project that has engaged him in the last ten years.
    Salgado points the finger at Bolsonaro, "elected by agribusiness and supported by evangelical religious groups who want to conquer the souls of the Indians". In the 1500s, at the time of the conquistadors, in the forest lived by four to five million indigenous people who were decimated also from diseases. The current 300 thousand Indians divided into 290 tribes, he explained, "can be completely infected and eliminated, without the possibility of help and assistance for the vastness of the territory. The risk of losing them is enormous". Brazilian 65% of the indigenous population lives, 102 groups 'from the prehistory of humanity' who have never had contact with the outside, for only 38 of which the areas in which they live are known. Recent news have indicated that there have been 120 Indians infected and 38 died in the suburban areas of large cities such as Manaus. But many have contact with the tribes, they met and move to the forest. " bbe doing a lot to help them - says Salgado - but it needs an explicit mandate. For this reason, the aim of the manifesto is to create a task force for military use in defense of indigenous peoples ''. The pressure on the Brazilian government, he specifies, must be exclusively political, aiming for international involvement.
    The master of photography began to devote himself to the project in 2011 and for seven years he approached with all precautions (authorizations, medical tests, quarantines so as not to cause contagions ...) on several occasions in 12 communities difficult to meet. '' Most of the images, with many aerial photos, concerned the rivers, the trees, the clouds, the landscape.
    The great discovery is that the Amazon is not only the forest, there are mountains as high as the Alps and the European peaks, the savannah. The air is full of water ''. The photographic project will be presented in Rome, Paris, Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro. For the first time in an exhibition in Salgado, a decisive role will be occupied by music with pieces by the Frenchman Jean Michele Jarre and compositions by the Brazilian author Heitor Villa-Lobos who disappeared in the forest in the early twentieth century and on his return he documented the sounds of 'Amazon. '' The music and my photos ... it will be a great show - says Salgado -. There will also be a video with the intervention of eight leaders of the indigenous movement in their language. '' After a few days, the appeal had already collected 230,000 signatures, including famous names in architecture, art, literature, cinema and music. '' We need more - says the master - the hope is to make everyone aware that the disappearance of indigenous peoples would be an extreme tragedy for Brazil and an immense loss for humanity. There is no time to lose''. (HANDLE).