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Artist finds peace, family in Brazil through philanthropic photography of Yanomami indians

Anyone traveling to Brazil — perhaps for this summer’s Olympic soccer competition — should make a point to stop at the Inhotim contemporary art center in Brumadinho, which at 5,000 acres is considered the largest art park in the world.
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April 6, 2016

Anyone traveling to Brazil — perhaps for this summer’s Olympic soccer competition — should make a point to stop at the Inhotim contemporary art center in Brumadinho, which at 5,000 acres is considered the largest art park in the world. 

There, among works by contemporary artists from around the globe, the center’s newest pavilion focuses on the work of Claudia Andujar, a woman whose kinship with the Yanomami peoples of northern Brazil was precipitated by her own personal loss in the Holocaust.

“I have absolutely no family,” Andujar said. “My family are the Yanomami. I feel at home with them.”

Claudia Andujar in the Andujar pavilion. Photo by Rossana Magri

Born in Switzerland in 1931 to a Hungarian-Jewish father and Swiss-born mother, Andujar has lived and worked in Brazil since 1954. As the humanist photographer describes it: “I spent the first 13 years of my life between [what was at various times part of] Romania and Hungary, in Nagyvarad, Transylvania. In 1944, all my father’s family were taken to Dachau concentration camp where they died … all of them. 

“My mother and I escaped, avoiding the camps. I was very shaken by what was happening. It is something that stayed with me until today. I think my pursuing and working with the Amazon’s indigenous Yanomami Indian group, to defend them and give them the opportunity to survive is … a way of dealing with my youth.”

The artist is a co-founder of Comissão Pró-Yanomami (CCPY), a Brazilian organization dedicated to preserving Yanomami culture and territorial rights. She has worked to help the Yanomami survive decimation from disease brought by the outside world, such as polio and measles, and has fought the destruction of their lands brought about by gold mining and deforestation. 

Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Andujar spent long periods of time among the Yanomami on their lands, mostly in the basin of the Catrimani River, a tributary of the Branco River near the northern Brazilian border.

“There are about 20,000 Yanomami. … I only know part of them,” she said. “I have known them for 30 to 40 years. They call me ‘Mother.’ That’s wonderful!”

Andujar explained that the Yanomami were very sensitive to outside exposure. 

“They were getting all kinds of diseases, and many died because of this. We decided to have a health project, and I accompanied two doctors to vaccinate them and do whatever was necessary for them to survive. 

“The Yanomami knew that many had died, and that we were trying to help them. In their culture there is no such thing as doctors or vaccinations. Many knew me, so they accepted my help.”

Inhotim is located outside of Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s third-largest city (and home to one of the seven venues in six Brazilian host cities for the 2016 Olympic soccer competition). Art is displayed in various pavilions and galleries, as well as outdoors among botanical gardens, forest landscapes, trails and more. 

At present, there are 19 permanent pavilions at the Inhotim center and more than 20 stand-alone pieces, four galleries with rotating exhibits, with more pavilions contracted for the future. Internationally known contemporary artists, from Yayoi Kusama and Chris Burden to Brazilian superstar Tunga, get to choose a location from among the park’s hills, fields, meadows or forest, then team up with a noted architect to design a site-specific structure, space or pavilion.

The Claudia Andujar pavilion at the Inhotim contemporary art center in Brazil

The newest and second-largest pavilion, opened in November 2015, is devoted to the works of Andujar. The opening show in the Andujar pavilion, the result of a five-year collaborative effort between the artist and the Inhotim center, consists of more than 400 photographs Andujar produced between 1970 and 2010. Among these are works from her Marcados series, some of which were published in her 2009 book, “Marcados.” 

“The Marcados are the Yanomami who … are all numbered. When we started working with the Yanomami, they had to be identified to be able to do the health project because the Yanomami culture does not have names. They call each other mother, father, brother … by their family connection. I photographed every Yanomami who was examined by the doctor and given a vaccination.”  

The photos have a raw quality, as if the viewer is invading the private lives and thoughts of the Yanomami. These are a people who are totally unfamiliar with cameras and photographs, and just as unfamiliar with outsiders. One can almost see the Yanomami’s apprehension, their wondering, “Why are you looking at me?”  

In some cases, the viewer can see joy, delight, even. Others are quietly watching, waiting to see what will happen next, and still others seem to have a complete discomfort with the situation. 

Andujar said that her pavilion “is organized into four sections according to ‘Amazonian nature’: portraits; the way the Yanomami live and their culture; Shaminism; and the Yanomami’s history since I began working with them. … This is the first time I have between 400-500 photos [displayed] in one place.” 

Andujar, who has contributed to many publications, documentary projects and exhibitions on the Amazon and its indigenous peoples, has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the globe. Her photographs have been published in Life, Fortune and other magazines, and are in the collections of places such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The most expedient way to get to Inhotim from the United States is through Sao Paolo. Nonstop flights from Sao Paolo to Belo Horizonte take about one hour; shuttle or bus service from Belo Horizonte to Inhotim takes another hour or so. 

Visitors should note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Brazil to caution travelers about the Zika virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites.

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