Retomada da Terra
Far from the Amazon, far from sight. In Brazil, the “Retomada da Terra” are a land occupation movement led by the indigenous Guarani to reclaim ancestral territories that have been confiscated throughout history. This conflict, which pits the Guarani against agro-industry mafias, claims dozens of victims each year with complete impunity. Farmers are often supported by regional police forces, while the Guarani denounce an ongoing slow genocide. In 2023, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, visited the state of Mato Grosso do Sul to meet with the Guarani. Among her statements, she emphasized the violence and the resulting physical and mental consequences. These coordinated resistance movements have enabled many Guarani to reclaim, often at the cost of their lives, part of their sacred ancestral territory, which corresponds to what was once the Atlantic Forest. These lands are located in the states of Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, a region where monocultures of soy and corn have replaced their ancestors’ forests, and where only 7.3% of the original Atlantic Forest remains today. The struggle of the Guarani is not only a fight for their own survival and that of their traditions but also an environmental struggle, for reforestation and against the abusive use of chemical pesticides. In a region where, as far as the eye can see, monocultures have long replaced the vast forests known to their ancestors, they become the guardians of the land, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. This work, which is still in progress, is being carried out with the Brazilian anthropologist Carol Mira.
Renaud Philippe
Renaud Philippe is a freelance documentary photographer based in Quebec, Canada. For nearly 20 years, his work has focused on the long-term consequences of armed conflict and climate change for civilian populations. Renaud takes an anthropological and humanist look at the notions of forced exile and collective trauma, in a geopolitical context that is both current and historical. The imbalance of wealth, human suffering and injustice are the driving forces that have always led him down this path, that of humanist and militant photography, where the encounter with the Other and the bonds created are at the heart of his approach. His work has been exhibited at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec, the Bangkok Art and Culture Center in Thailand and the Guardian Gallery in London, among others. Renaud works regularly with the New York Times, the Globe and Mail and Bloomberg. Since January 2022, he has dedicated himself to documenting the movement to reclaim the ancestral lands of the Guarani indigenous people in Brazil.
Exhibition presented free of charge in the 1912 Building of La Pulperie.
Exhibition presented within the framework of the Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay.
For more information on the Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay, consult the zoomphotofestival.ca
