NoguerasBlanchard is pleased to announce a new production by Marine Hugonnier, Travelling Amazonia. The project consists of a film and photographic works which come out of an exploration of the geography and history of Brazil. Travelling Amazonia closes the trilogy formed by Ariana, 2003 and The Last Tour, 2004, where Hugonnier explores the relation between landscape and history.

After a journey with a film crew to Afghanistan (Ariana) and a trip in a hot air balloon over the Matterhorn (The last tour), Hugonnier travels to the heart of the Amazon jungle to film Travelling Amazonia. The film’s narrative is centered around the Trans-amazonia highway, a massive project devised by the Brazilian government in the seventies to establish a route that would bisect the Amazon forest and connect the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. The objective of Hugonnier and her team is to build a dolly and tracks with the same materials as were employed in building the highway and which came from the local industries which were generated. The construction of the Transamazonia generated an industry around the extraction of natural resources like metal, wood and rubber. Hugonnier and her team make use of these materials to build a dolly and some tracks to realise upon the very same road a "travelling shot". The purpose is to film a linear “travelling shot” which re-enacts the linearity of the Transamazonia highway and which recalls the pioneering ideals that this colonialist project embodied.

As Carlos Molina notes in the catalogue The uses of image: Photography, film and video in the Jumex Collection: “The visual structure of Hugonnier's videos posits the spectator in the middle of the film´s narrative by juxtaposing two plastic strategies: rythm and contrast. The sequence of images is ambiguous and there are no foregrounds or backgrounds; what is represented is rather the circumstance. There are no details or main roles; the film is more concerened with rendering an atmosphere of an observed reality. Despite appearing to be a panoramic view away from political passions and aesthetic preconceptions, the film could not be more committed to a revisited colonialism and a critique to globalization.”

The exhibition also consists of three photographic works which compliment the film. Wednesday and Thursday seek to reproduce the exact moment of the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral. Cabral first saw Monte Pascoal at dusk on Wednesday April 22, 1500 and had to wait for the early hours of next morning to confirm his vision. Beach of the new world shows the exact geographical spot where Cabral and his crew first went ashore. Hugonnier alludes to those few hours in history when the ideals, beliefs and made-up imagery of “The New World” made their lasting entry into the Western psyche.

Marine Hugonnier (Paris, 1969) is an artist of international renown and her recent exhibitions include: T1 Torinotriennale, Castello di Rivoli d´Arte Contemporanea / GAM Galleria Civica de Arte Moderna, Turín / Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Italia; Universal Experience: Art, life and the tourist´s eye, MCA Chicago, USA / Hayward Gallery, London / MART, Trento, Italia; British Art Show 6, Hayward Gallery touring exhibition; Utopia Station, 50 Bienal de Venecia, Italia (2003); Cine y casi cine, MNCARS, Madrid (2003). Her solo exhibitions include: Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Nueva York (2005); Kunst-Werke, Berlin (2004); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Escocia (2004); CGAC, Santiago de Compostela (2001).

Marine Hugonnier currently lives and works in London.

The film Travelling Amazonia is a co-production made possible thanks to: Max Wigram Gallery (London), NoguerasBlanchard (Barcelona), Martha Hummer Bradley and The Arts Council, England. The exhibition is also supported by British Council, Barcelona and the Institut Français, Barcelona.