Diálogos com Amaú

Diálogos com Amaú (1983) is one of the artist’s first audiovisual installations, presented for the first time at the XVII Bienal de São Paulo. In this work, the idea of making a cinematographic presentation based on still images is pushed to the limit: each of the slide projector carousels has 81 photos that are repeated and quickly alternated on the fabric screens, creating overlappings among them. The common thread in the images is a series of portraits of a Caiapó Indian, the “Amaú” in the title, who appears repeatedly. In photographing him, Rio Branco captured his mildness but also his melancholy; this deaf and dumb teenager was a sort of pariah in his village (Gorotiri, southern Pará). The images that alternate with the portraits of Amaú are photographs made up to 1983, with intense depictions of wild-cat gold mining, prostitution, clandestine slaughterhouses and garbage dumps. The narrative focus then moves to Amaú’s facial expressions and gestures, to find the moments of his so-called escapes or deliriums. The installation’s sound is an audio recording made by the artist of a ritual in the same village.