Altamira 2042

Since 2013, the Brazilian actress and director Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha has been investigating Brazil's river landscapes threatened by human intervention. The performance installation “Altamira 2042” has been created from the testimony of the Rio Xingu, one of the great tributaries of the River Amazon, and the Belo Monte dam, which massively threatens rainforest areas and Indigenous groups along this river's banks. As master of ceremonies in a techno-shamanistic ritual, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha presents documentary material of the actual river, the Indigenous inhabitants of its banks and their enchanted beings. The voices of the water, the animals, the plants, the residents, the displaced, and the deceased, but also the sounds of the machines and the noise of destruction, come out of colourful LED speakers. A polyphonic mythological-spiritual narrative unfolds towards the river as a carrier of history, the significance for the biotope and the environment—and about the possibilities of resistance and a different future in the speculative year 2042. "If the river could talk, it would cry. Because it does not speak, it suffers everything in silence." For the past five years, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha was developing "Riverbank Project: About Rivers, Buiúnas, and Fireflies”—an art research project dedicated to sharing the testimony of disasters that Brazilian rivers incur. The first stage focused on the Araguaia River and the women who fought in the Araguaia Guerrilla Group. After shows in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other major cities, the play was presented in nine cities in the region where the conflicts actually took place. "Altamira 2042,” which premiered in 2019, is the second stage of the "Riverbank Project.” Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha has received various international art and research scholarships and awards for her work. In her theatre and film career, she worked with directors such as Ariane Mnouchkine, Georgette Fadel, Cibele Forjaz, Grace Passô, Eryk Rocha, and Heitor Dhalia. The performances are part of Kaserne Globâle in cooperation with CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia.