The Cartier Foundation and the Yanomami struggle
Open Gallery
The shaman Tuxaua João blows on the hallucinogen yãkoana in the nostrils of a young man at the end of the reahu feast, Catrimani, Roraima, 1974. / Tomé Xaxanapi thëri inhales the hallucinogen yãkoana, Catrimani, Roraima, 1974.
Open Gallery
Youth Wakatha u thëri victim of measles, is treated by shamans and paramedics from the Catholic mission, Catrimani, Roraima, 1976.
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain exhibits the work and activism of Claudia Andujar. For over five decades, she has devoted her life to photographing and protecting the Yanomami, one of Brazil’s largest indigenous group.
Based on four years of research in the photographer’s archive, this new exhibition curated by Thyago Nogueira for the Instituto Moreira Salles in Brazil, will focus on her work from this period, bringing together over three hundred photographs, her audiovisual installation as well as a series of Yanomami drawings. The exhibition will explore Claudia Andujar’s extraordinary contribution to the art of photography as well as her major role as a human rights activist in the defense of the Yanomami. It is divided into two sections reflecting the dual nature of a career committed to both art and activism. The first section presents the photographs from her first seven years living with the Yanomami, showing how she grappled with the challenges of visually interpreting a complex culture. The second features the work she produced during her period of activism, when she began to use her photography as a tool among others for political change.
Claudia Andujar was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1931 and currently lives and works in São Paulo. She grew up in Transylvania, which at the time had recently been incorporated to Romania after years of Hungarian domination. During WWII, Claudia’s father, a Hungarian Jew, was deported to Dachau where he was killed along with most of her paternal relatives. Claudia Andujar fled with her mother to Switzlerand, immigrated first to the United States in 1946, then to Brazil in 1955 where she began a career as an artist and a photojournalist.
