Teatro Amazonas

Conceived by the Spanish choreographer Laida Azkona Goñi and the Chilean video artist Txalo Toloza-Fernández, the work makes an inventory of violence in the Amazon region.

It is unavoidable not to think about the current Brazilian environmental policy that dates back centuries of massacres of indigenous peoples in the Amazon. Different modes of economic exploitation and murders of indigenous and riverine leaders and environmental defenders.

The duo writes, stages, and performs, supported by documentary procedures, animated forms (objects), incidental music, and video. There is great emphasis on the voices of residents, leaders, historians, and anthropologists through the verbatim technique, which reproduces words and tones from reports collected on trips to the states of Amazonas and Pará.

The script starts from the delusion of grandeur, the case of the Irish businessman who lived in Peru and dreamed of opening an opera house in the Amazon jungle, and, for that, he entered the field of rubber exploration. Failure portrayed in the film “Fitzcarraldo – Burden of Dreams” (1982) by the German Werner Herzog. In fact, Teatro Amazonas was built and opened in 1896 as a child of the latex extraction cycle.

Another predatory example is Fordlândia (PA), a city built on the banks of the Tapajós River, one of the tributaries of the Amazon. An undertaking by the North American Henry Ford (1863-1947) and the interim government to produce rubber, which was later abandoned.

The genesis of the work premiered in 2020, came from a listening exercise. Better saying, reading. On January 2, 2019, Azkona&Toloza learned about the open letter from the Aruak, Baniwa, and Apurinã peoples to the sworn president. It was the second day in office, and the content was mobilizing.

“We have already been wiped out, tutored, and victims of the integrationist policy of governments and the Brazilian National State, so we come before the public to say that we no longer accept integration policy, guardianship policy, and we do not want to be decimated by new government actions and the Brazilian National State,” says the document.

In the slavery country – of indigenous people and later Africans – the appeals continue to be demeaned by the government, hunters, fishermen, prospectors, land grabbers, loggers, and buyers.

Who are they
Located halfway between the Mediterranean Sea, the Pyrenees, and the Atacama Desert, Azkona&Toloza comprises creations by the Spanish Laida Azkona Goñi (1981), and the Chilean Txalo Toloza Fernández (1975) centered on the reinterpretation of official history. As in the Pacific Trilogy, which encompasses colonialism and barbarism in areas of Latin America: “Extraños Mares Arden” (2014), “Tierras del Sud” (2018) and “Teatro Amazonas” (2020).

Datasheet
Project by Azkona&Toloza
Dramaturgy and staging Laida Azkona Goñi, Txalo Toloza-Fernández
Performers Laida Azkona Goñi, Txalo Toloza-Fernández
Voiceover Luana Raiter, Camilo Schaden
Direction assistant Raquel Cors
Documentary research Leonardo Gamboa
Production design Elclimamola
Original soundtrack and sound design Rodrigo Rammsy
Sound concept Juan Cristóbal Saavedra
Lighting project Ana Rovira
Touring lighting technician Conrado Parodi
Audiovisual design MiPrimerDrop
Scenography Xesca Salvà e MiPrimerDrop
Stylist Sara Espinosa
Production in Spain Helena Febrés
Production delegated outside Spain Théâtre Garonne – scène européenne
Translation into portuguese Lívia Diniz e Camila Rocha
Translation into tukano João Paulo Lima Barreto
Reporter Pedro Granero
Illustration Jeisson Castillo
Photography Tristán Pérez-Martín
Production in Brazil OFF Produções Culturais – Celso Curi, Heloisa
Andersen, Jackson França e Wesley Kawaai
Support Institut Ramon Llull