News from the Amazon Front

Immersing yourself in a world impenetrable to man, this is the theme of “Our Amazon Frontline” , the project curated by Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse for the Peru Pavilion during the 15th Architecture Biennale in Venice.

The path inside the pavilion is marked by a corridor which, like a great vortex, absorbs you step by step, made up of walls made up of photographic portraits of natives, which carefully observed make you identify with them, imagining that you are inside the forest; what we discover is a fascinating culture, totally opposite to that in which we are used to living, where the relationship between nature and man is closely connected but above all where man without it would have no reason to exist. Continuing to discover this country, however, we realize that it is plagued by divisions that weigh on its balance.

Occupied for 61% by the Amazon rainforest, Peru is experiencing a deep rift within it due to the division between the Amazon Frontline area and the rest of the country. First it must be taken into account that these are indigenous tribes that have little to do with the rest of the population living in Peru.

It is estimated that today thousands of indigenous children are forced to attend schools where the proposed teaching is offered in a language other than their own, Spanish. It is also necessary to take into account the situation of the Amazonian territory where there is a very high level of biodiversity that is not yet protected in the right way. The pavilion project addresses precisely these issues, those of the integration and protection of this portion of the country, proposing to enhance the multiculturalism and biodiversity of these areas that are still impenetrable to many today, trying to build relationships between peoples with different habits and cultures. .

The project is part of a proposal carried out and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, called "Plan Selva" where the starting point is the improvement of the school system and its structures, to encourage opportunities for exchange and comparison and it is right here architecture comes into play.

14 young architects were chosen who have the task of designing or redesigning hundreds of school structures in the poorest and most isolated areas of the country where even the most basic infrastructures are lacking.

The question to ask is: "Can architecture be the engine of a social and cultural regeneration?"

The answer here comes spontaneously looking at how the projects and models of schools were conceived by architects. The facilities are not just places for education but rather points of reference for communities. These spaces will be lived in such a way as to make these areas, currently isolated, more penetrable places and open to the rest of the country, thus eliminating any kind of disadvantage that is found today living in the Amazon rainforest.

- LORENZO MORELLI -