The Guardianes Madre Árbol (Guardians of Mother Tree), an association that defends the Madre Unión biodiversity zone in Colombia, share their creation story in this short film, co-written with the artist Marc Lathuillière.
About
Synopsis
The Guardianes Madre Árbol (Guardians of Mother Tree), an association that defends the Madre Unión biodiversity zone in Colombia, share their creation story in this short film, co-written with the artist Marc Lathuillière.Using a combination of documentary and magic realism, the film is a testimony to the threat that hangs over this Afro-descendant community in northern Colombia. Using non-violent means, this community is resisting the armed threats from paramilitaries and agro-industrialists who are trying to displace them by force and deforest their land. Since 2022, the artist's project with the Madre Unión, which includes film, photography and collaborative writing, has received a Support for Documentary Photography grant from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), the help of AM Art Films, and logistical support from the Colombian NGO Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz and the French company BreakFirst.
The artist
Since 2004, Marc
Lathuillière has been exploring the representation of globalized societies in terms of their relationship with time and the environment. Marc
Lathuillière’s hands-on, post-documentary style uses anthropology to challenge cultural stereotypes. This has led him to collaborate with Marc
Augé and Tim Ingold on certain exhibitions
and texts. His work has been exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Iberê Camargo
Foundation in Porto Alegre, Le Creux de l'Enfer, La
Friche La Belle de Mai, Paris Photo, the Siam museum in Bangkok, Galerie Binome and
Photoszene Cologne. His
work also features in the collections of FRAC Auvergne, BnF and
Neuflize OBC.
Guardianes
Madre Árbol
Set up in 2020, this is the association by which the residents of Madre Unión defend themselves from deforestation and the appropriation of their land. In 2022, the association asked Marc Lathuillière to promote its visibility through his art via the adoption of the name ‘Mother Tree Guardians’, a narrative, images, a logo, outfits, etc. Under the constant menace of illegal groups, the association tries to safeguard the peaceful resistance of its members, acting both as an environmental guardian and as an agricultural group, promoting organic crops and reforestation while also providing a space for reflection and creation.
Since 2020, Marc Lathuillière has been forging a creative alliance of resistance withthis community in Bajo Atrato, a conflict zone in northern Colombia on the border with Panama. In this designated ‘biodiversity zone’ of jungle and wetlands, off-limits to anyone carrying weapons, the community is trying to defend its land against deforestation,and against the agro-industrialists and narco-paramilitaries trying to take their territory by force. Against the backdrop of this unseen conflict, the artistand the villagers have come together to invent forms of environmental resistance, combining photography, film, texts and performance.
http://www.lathuillier.com/luces-distantes
Screening(s)
*Rencontres photographiques d’Arles, Luces Distantes as part of the programme ‘Grow Up’ at the Manuel Riviera Ortiz Foundation from 23 July to 24 September 2023
Curators: Pasal Beausse and Florent Basiletti.
*Festival Ciné Pampa 3, organised by La Maison Composer at Saints-en-Puisaye (Yonne) on 2 September 2023.
*Paranapiacaba 2023 Photography Festival, Sao Paolo, Brazil
*Poush, as part of the exhibition ‘Shaping: Refracted Times’ from 12 January to 17 February 2024
Curator: Zohreh Deldadeh
| Format | Vidéo, color, spanish, subtitle french and english, 2023 |
| Production | Marc Lathuillière |
| With the support | CNAP - Centre National des Arts Plastiques AM Art Films |
| Duration | 08:08 mn |
