Dourados: the forgotten land / la terra dimenticata

[ENGLISH BELOW]

Siamo molto contenti di dare il benvenuto in S4C ad Andrea Ruggeri.

Andrea ha un passato di studi di filosofia, ma qualche anno fa ha intrapreso una bellissima carriera fotografica spinto dal desiderio di investigare temi sociali con la sua macchina fotografica. ha quindi trascorso lunghi periodi in Sud America, dove nella Regione del Mato Grosso du Sul ha anche insegnato fotografia in una riserva indigenza, nell’ambito di un progetto dell’Università di San Paolo.

Quella che presentiamo oggi è una selezione di un reportage su quella terra, molto spesso dimenticata o ignorata. 

Verrebbe da dire che, nel mondo, le situazioni di crisi o di disagio sociale e ambientale sono talmente tante che dimenticarsene è inevitabile. Vero.

Ma noi siamo qui anche per questo. Per ricordarlo.

Antonio Amendola 

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DOURADOS, THE FORGOTTEN LAND

S4C welcomes on board Rome’s photographer Andrea Ruggeri. Andrea has a background in philosophy but, several years ago, started travelling around the World to discover and tell social themes with his camera. Between 2005 and 2009 he travelled through South America, where he taught photography in an indigenous reserve in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, as part of a project with the University of São Paulo.

During this time he completed his work about Guarani indigenous people of Southern Brazil, miners in Potosi, Bolivia, and a project about Argentineans. His pictures have appeared in Scampia, at “Periferie del Mondo” festival, at the 2007 “Festival Internazionale di Roma” of photography, at “Bibli” and “The House of Love and dissent” galleries of Rome, at the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Shanghai.

Today he is an accomplished freelance photographer and S4C is happy to count him among its volunteers who, daily, offer a concrete help with their photographic skill. To make a change.

So, here we go today, with Andrea’s reportage on a forgotten Land: Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

The most populated and one of the least known indigenous reserves in Brazil is located next to the town of Dourados, where the forests have been replaced by endless plantations of sugar cane and soya. Nowadays Guarani-Kaiowa people who live in this small area lie in a no man’s land between tradition and modern society; violence, depression, drugs and alcoholic problems are daily concerns.

Without work or hope for a brighter future, young Guaranies have one of the highest suicide rate in the world.

Here’s a short music pictorial of his work: