River Voices

“Can the Amazon be integrated within the contemporary world as we know it or perhaps it already is? Today, rivers in the Amazon have many different layers based on traditional and contemporary knowledge systems forming complex processes and relationships.”

For the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, Alta Tecnología Andina (ATA) presents River Voices, a digital project which embraces new ways of understanding rivers, their communities and the ways in which they are intertwined with issues such as climate change and pollution. Using digital technology, the project brings together collaborators across Latin America and Australia to ask the question: What does it mean to give voice to the river?

Through online discussions, performances, screenings and artistic action, River Voices considers rivers as more than a means of transportation and communication. It acknowledges that riverine wetlands are places where Indigenous communities have lived over generations and honours the transboundary nature of waterways, that evade constructed concepts of nationhood and political borders.

Beginning with the voices of the Amazon and its communities, ATA enables an experimental dialogue between global river systems and creates a platform for those addressing contemporary crises around waterways to discuss urgent issues.

The multi-part series will be translated in Spanish and English.

River Voices: Session 1 | Reminder and Renewal

River Voices: Session 2 | Rivers and Oil

River Voices: Session 3 | Signs and Algorithms: Decolonisation on the move?

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Commonwealth through the Council on Australia Latin America Relations, which is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.