Tapajós

Interdisciplinary artist and activist Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha has been working for years with Brazilian rivers as witnesses to environmental disasters — with performances and films based on long-term artistic studies. To this end, she regularly travels to the Amazon regions and networks with resistance fighters throughout the country.


Tapajós arose from such an encounter with mothers living on the Tapajós. This tributary of the Amazon is polluted by illegal gold mining using mercury, which was used in the development of photographs until the mid-19th century and which poisons the river water, affecting mothers and their unborn children in particular.


On stage, Carneiro da Cunha develops large-format photographs that tell the story of the river, its pollution and the women fighting for healing: a performance ritual that calls for an alliance of all human and non-human mothers and immerses the audience in witnessing and resistance