Claudia Andujar survived genocide thanks to exile; her life has since been branded by a past of war and extermination. Andujar’s work combines a repertoire of images that extend far beyond purely documentary photography, evoking, from the point of view of Indigenous cosmovision, that which seems invisible to us. In the series entitled House (1974), Andujar photographs the day-to-day life of the Yanomami as they go about domestic chores. In one of the photographs of the series, a child appears illuminated by light filtering through cracks into the dark environs of a yano (collective house), transforming it into a visual manifestation expressing a nonseparation between life in the forest and the intangible spiritual world of the xapiri. In the series O reahu (1974), the artist documents an important funeral ceremony. In these black-and-white photographs, participants appear embellished with bird plumage as light filtering through cracks again illuminates the surroundings. The points of luminosity that penetrate collective spaces of habitation, work, and ritual registered by Andujar all help compose a dream-like ambiance.
This is the first time the work of Claudia Andujar is presented at Biennale Arte.
—André Mesquita
