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Worlds that are aesthetic and metaphysical, dreamlike, colorful and indigenous: the new show Siamo Foresta ('we are forest') staged at Milan's Triennale and welcoming visitors until 29 October 2023 offers a complete sensory immersion in the realm of contemporary art and a very topical theme: humankind's role in the context of nature and the world of living species. The exhibition presents a unique opportunity that has enabled new art projects to cross paths and compare contents, generating fresh works and unexpected teamings.
Created in conjunction with Triennale Milano and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Siamo Foresta has been shaped under the art direction of the anthropologist Bruce Albert, with overall art direction by Hervé Chandès of Fondation Cartier, and exhibition design by the artist Luiz Zerbini. The show brings together pieces by 27 artists from various countries, but primarily from Latin America: there are works by indigenous artists ‒ from New Mexico to Paraguayan Chaco and through to the Amazon ‒ as well as non-indigenous ones (from Brazil, China, Colombia, France).
Siamo Foresta is the sixth exhibition project already staged during this eight-year partnership between Triennale and the French foundation. A project that seals the close collaboration between the institutions, aiming to foster meeting and exchange between artists, and to prompt dialogue and affiliation, such as that between Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, a Venezuelan Yanomami, and the Frenchman Fabrice Hyber, between the Rio de Janeiro artist Adriana Varejão and Joseca Mokahesi, a Brazilian Yanomami, and between the Brazilian Yanomami Ehuana Yaira and Cai Guo-Qiang, a New York-based Chinese artist.
The works on display range from paintings to sculptures through to graphic art, also including installations and three short films to contextualize the lives and creation processes used by some of the artists involved. Despite their diversity, what emerges is a perfect spatial mix, where freedom and harmony can be perceived, as in the garden where colored and colorful walls evoke the real Amazon, with lush plants, bushes and small trees.
"Since its origins, the Western tradition has split and allotted hierarchy to living beings using a value scale where the human race is placed at the top. This sense of supremacy has gradually distanced humans from the rest of the living world, paving the way for the array of mistreatment that has led to biodiversity destruction and contemporary climate catastrophe. Instead, the philosophy of indigenous societies in the Americas holds that humans and all life forms (animals and plants) may be very different in physical appearance but are closely united by the same sensitivity and intentions. Hence, human communities and those of other life forms contribute to a complex multiverse of populations that co-exist on an equal footing and at the cost of mutual compromise within the same vast living entity, the 'Earth-forest-world'. It is in the name of this concern regarding equality between life forms and recognition of the permeability of boundaries that apparently mark them ‒ contrary, therefore, to any idea of human supremacy ‒ that the artists presented here have grouped together".
Bruce Albert, anthropologist and art co-director for the exhibition
Almost all the pieces on display here come from the Fondation Cartier permanent collection ‒ a factor that narrates the long-term support given to these artists, who are often outside the customary circle of art institutions and markets. Underlining the emotional connections involved in determining which artists would be selected for the show was the exhibition design by Luiz Zerbini: it accompanies visitors on a seamless tour of the works and submerges these observers in the pulsing rhythm of the forest.
So vegetation is brought into the Triennale and, thanks to the botanist Stefano Mancuso's consultancy, specific tree species have been chosen. Each of the plants on show is a character in an imaginary landscape accompanying the visitor from start to finish, blurring the boundaries between the architecture of the exhibition halls and the surrounding environment.
"My experience of exhibition design is limited to my own shows and installations. I decided to accept the challenge of contributing to creating this project and, right from the outset, when studying the building plans, I realized there were many unused skylights in the Triennale spaces. This discovery radically changed the project confines, and from this stemmed the idea of bringing natural lighting into the exhibition. The presence of light made it feasible to include living plants to interact with the works, and being able to stroll among the artworks and plants makes Siamo Foresta not only an exhibition but a unique experience. I'm very grateful for this invitation and I believe this will remain a memorable event".
Luiz Zerbini
Visitors are welcomed at the exhibition entrance by the monumental canvases jointly created by two artists, Sheroanawe Hakihiiw and Fabrice Hyber. Just like in a wood, where all the plants grow together, intertwining and making space for each other, their work is accompanied by pieces by a Brazilian artist from the Huni Kuin community, Cleiber Bane, with visual narrations of his people's ritual chants, which create authentic shamanic music scores. These are found alongside the dreamlike visions by the activist artist Jaider Esbell and his mythology bestiary from the Macuxi people in the northern Brazilian Amazon.
There are many connections with shamanism and its traditions. The painting Cadernos de viagem, connaissance par corps by the artist Adriana Varejão and the drawing Becoming a Shaman by the artist Joseca Mokahesi are displayed alongside each other, underscoring the close ties between the two works and which are the foundations to their conception, pivoting on spirituality and sensory experience.
Within the context of Siamo Foresta, the Triennale Milano cinema hall offers a program of three films by directors from Paraguayan Chaco and the Amazon, taking to the screen three indigenous communities present in the show: the Yanomami in the northern Brazilian Amazon, and the Nivaclé and the Guaraní in the Gran Chaco area of Paraguay.
Talks and special events have been organized around the exhibition. After the opening appointment between Fabrice Hyber and Sherohanawe Hakihiiwe, and that between Adriana Varejão and Joseca Mokahesi, unique dialogue and discussion between indigenous and non-indigenous artists followed and will continue to follow. One such example is that between the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang and the Brazilian Yanomami artist Ehuana Yaira, which gave rise to a joint work, presented for the first time in this show: the drawing of a dream by Ehuana Yaira has become a trail of sparks and explosions on canvas, applying the technique Cai Guo-Qiang is renowned for.
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Imaginary forests and dreamlike tropical panoramas, generated by the artist Bruno Novelli, combine fantasy creatures and geometrics made up of colorful shapes, where landscapes, animals and plants of various inspirational sources intertwine. Novelli in fact draws on the symbolism of medieval art and blends this with native Amazon art, staying close to the Huni Kuin artists of the Brazilian Amazon; these are the foundations he has intentionally built on in a new diptych for Siamo Foresta.
Instead, the Colombian artist Johanna Calle has traced out the ethereal silhouette of a large tree on paper for notary use which features typed excerpts from a law on returning lands to indigenous farmers. Described by the artist as a photographic drawing, the work aims to spotlight how important it is to carry on planting trees, as this is one of the few ways these farmers have of marking out ownership of the lands they tend, since they cannot afford to erect fencing.
Lastly, Alex Cerveny's drawings lead into fantasy worlds where human beings and mythological or biblical characters are always closely associated with tree-like forms, until they in fact become trees themselves. These works intend to underline the symbiosis and ties between humans and non-humans, with inspiration coming from the native cultures of the Brazilian Amazon forest. Particularly interesting is one of his works, Pharmacopoeia, 2023: a painting on a black ground and created for Siamo Foresta, this shows humans embedded in the earth, beneath trees and surrounded by a sky of clouds and the names of medicinal plants used by the Brazilian Yanomami.
Dates: June 22 – October 29, 2023
Location: Triennale Milano
Artistic Direction: Bruce Albert, anthropologist, Hervé Chandès, Artistic Managing Director, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
Exhibition Design: Luiz Zerbini
Exhibition Views: Photography by Andrea Rossetti, courtesy of Triennale Milano
Works: all images courtesy of Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
