MANIOK REIBE ICH DIR, SCHWESTERCHEN

2015-19, 2-Channel Video Installation HD-Video, Sound, 13min + 43min


The work MANIOC I GRIND YOU, SISTER gathers images and interviews with local Amazon women activists and herbalists, filmed by Barbara Marcel and Ana Hupe in Santarém, Alter do Chão and in the community of Anã between 2013 and 2017 (Alto Tapajós River, Amazon region, Brazil). In the second, more experimental channel, guided by a sound piece made by the musician Thelmo Cristovam, fragments of the first film ever shot in the Amazonian Forest, No Paiz das Amazonas (Silvino Santos and Agesislau de Araújo, Manaus, Brazil 1922), are merged with images of present-day soy monocultures and local politicians discussing town planning. The surviving ancestral indigenous process of manufacturing manioc flour is also juxtaposed with an old recording of Macushi indigenous people singing a women’s labour song recorded by the German naturalist Theodor Koch-Grünberg between 1911 and 1913, during a trip to the Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazon. Mixing the sound material contained in the Koch-Grünberg wax rolls with contemporary images demonstrating the survival of indigenous technology in the production of manioc flour in caboclo communities in the Amazon region, the artists experiment with the possibilities of productive shocks between past and present, and challenge viewers to listen to the Phonographic Archive of Berlin-Dahlem Museum in a decolonial way.












Film Credits

Interviews
Luciene Santos | Activist and Herbalist at GECEM- Casa de Chico Mendes, PA-BR Izilda Godinho aka Piquixita | Herbalist from the Community of Anã, in the Extractive Reserve of Tapajós-Arapiuns, PA-BR Claudete Munduruku | Defender of the Munduruku indigenous rights and teacher at Aldeia Sauré, Itaituba, PA-BR

Images: Barbara Marcel and Ana Hupe

Editing: Barbara Marcel

Soundtrack
ContraNatura (2015) by Thelmo Cristovam
Walzenaufnahmen aus Brasilien (1911-1913). Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv Series Historische Klangdokumente – 3. Arbeitsgesänge - Gesang Beim Maniokreiben, Gruppe Makuschí

Additional Images
No Paiz das Amazonas (In the land of the Amazon, Manaus, 1922), a film by Agesilau De Araujo and Silvino Santos.
Der Edison-Phonograph, by UnterbergerMedien, 2014. Auftraggeber: Helbling Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Produzent: M&P Unterberger KG. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4koqcfAzSCQ
National Museum: the neglect of history, Tv Brasil. September 2018. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPp1oR6JrPg

Ass. of Finalization: Alice Dalgalarrondo

Transcripts and subtitles: Paulina Hupe

Most of the footage was shot during a residency of artist Barbara Marcel at Casa Bicho, Alter do Chão in December 2017.




© 2021 Barbara Marcel