THE AMAZONIAN RUBBER BOOM @ NEWBRIDGE PROJECT

Words: Michael O’Neil

Curated by Giuliana Borea and Erna von der Walde, in partnership with Newcastle University’s Centre of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), The Amazonian Rubber Boom: Industrialisation, Extractivism and Violence is a profound, thought-provoking and vivid exploration of the many links between rubber exploitation in the Amazon and its circulation in Europe.

The exhibition, which comes to NewBridge Project from Friday 30th June-Saturday 12th August, focuses on the tragic consequences of the surge in demand for rubber from the Amazon, exasperated by the boom in industrialisation throughout Europe and the US, which not only fueled mass displacement for many indigenous people from their original lands, but also their enslavement. The exhibition will host art created by visual artists Brus Rabio, a Selva Invisible Gallery director who belongs to the Bora and Murui peoples in Peru’s northern Amazon; Santiago www.thenewbridgeproject.com

Yahuarcani, an indigenous leader of the Uitoto peoples; and Sarah March, a multimedia artist whose practice often focuses on uncovering obscure histories through a research-based approach. Alongside historical maps, photography and documents, literature on the rubber exploitation such as José Eustasio Rivera’s La Voragine (The Vortex) and the film El Canto de la Mariposa (The Song of the Butterflies) directed by filmmaker Nuria Martínez about the Yahuarcani´s family, their art and memory of this tragic episode. The Amazonian Rubber Boom is at NewBridge Project, Newcastle from Friday 30th June-Saturday 12th August.