Exhibitions
Bubuia: Floating in the imaginary and real currents of the Amazon
Floating to the rhythm of the current is the meaning of Bubuia , a conceptual idea conceived by Joao de Jesus Paes Loureiro and Bubuia. Waters as a Source of Imagination and Desire is the temporary exhibition installed at the Museum of Modern Art of Medellín (MAMM). It is an exhibition that invites the viewer to "let themselves be carried away" by Amazonian art and imagery, floating between the tangible and the dreamlike, learning from riverside knowledge as an act of resistance and re-existence.
It presents works by approximately 121 artists from the nine Pan-Amazonian countries—Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia—who live in or maintain an artistic dialogue with the Amazon, including Éder Oliveira, Elza Lima, Emmanuel Nassar, Francelino Mesquita, Francisco da Silva, Gabriel Bicho, Gê Viana, Gervane de Paula, Gerardo Petsaín, curated by Keyna Eleison and Vânia Leal.
Bubuia is more than a cultural expression: it's a conscious willingness to flow with the changing times and embrace what arrives. It takes root as inherited knowledge, characteristic of mestizo or caboclo riverine wisdom, transmitted orally as a strategy of resistance. This knowledge, imbued with direct experience with nature, is shared among equals and preserves the living memory of an intimate relationship with the land. It is a strategic stance in the face of the full awareness of chaos, violence, and disorder understood as a method. It involves not only immersion in that experience, but also the assimilation of the consequences that come with the knowledge of the unknown.
The thematic axes of the exhibition at MAMM focus on water as a driving force of imagination, desire, and collective memory, but also on the emergence of relational spaces based on experience, resistance, and cultural pluralism in the face of the climate crisis and global conflicts. The exhibition invites us to establish a poetic connection between tangible reality and the Amazonian imaginary, weaving a dialogue that unfolds between the visible and the dreamed. The works explore the constant tension between movement and stillness, between vital impulse and contemplation. This dynamic is intertwined with experiences of pleasure, moments of reflection, and a profound sense of harmony with nature, understood not only as an environment but also as a source of knowledge, inspiration, and cultural memory.
