Travelling Amazonia

“Travelling Amazonia”, by French artist Marine Hugonnier, represents the final chapter of a trilogy on the conventions of vision, which began with Ariana (2003) and The Last Tour (2006). The film explores the largest infrastructural project—ultimately left unfinished—of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s: the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a massive road that was intended to connect the country’s two coasts while also fostering the development of the extractive industry in otherwise inaccessible areas. “Travelling Amazonia” reflects on the pioneering ideals embodied by this project, starting from the raw materials that symbolize this territorial colonization. Wood, iron, and rubber are used by the artist and her team to construct a dolly, which is employed to film the road in a single, continuous tracking shot. It is through cinema itself—with its distinctive gaze and specific elements—that the artist examines how images of a landscape influence the observer’s experience of it, while also questioning how history and ideology shape our perception of reality.