Never give a river a name:
It is always a different river flowing by.
Nothing ever continues,
Everything begins anew!
(Mario Quintana. Canção do Dia de Sempre. Canções, 1946)
As in Quintana’s poem and in Anastácio’s words, rivers symbolize the fluidity of life, the ever changing passing of time, movement contained by the banks that are reshaped by the presence of different people and desires. The Oiapoque River is the foremost symbol of the present exhibition, an international border that divides and unites Brazil and the French Republic. On one side, Amapá; on the other, French Guiana; between them, a unique ecosystem within the Amazon biome, surrounded by Indigenous communities, riverside communities, urban settlements, and often threatened by the advance of development that is predatory.
