For the world, the Amazon rainforest is the frontline where constant battles are being fought to preserve the greatest source of biodiversity, oxygen production and climate regulation of the planet. For the Peruvian team, the Amazon is also the battlefront between the ancestral vision of its inhabitants and the modern vision of western society and is a historically neglected area by the State.

The Peruvian pavilion will show how the ‘Plan Selva’ relies on architecture for a massive educational program, restores dignity to a population that was historically relegated and offers a space for the balanced encounter between two apparently irreconcilable worlds. This large-scale public program reconstructs and rebuilds hundreds of schools in isolated communities in the Peruvian Amazon. The schools are made out of wood and metal and are designed to be easily dismantled and adapted, depending on particular pedagogic requirements, topographical conditions and size of the communities. The result is a climatic-sensitive modular architecture, respectful to the Amazonian way of life.

The exhibition in the Arsenale will immerse the visitors in the Peruvian Amazon through visual elements that show the mystery of its inhabitants and the impenetrable lushness of the jungle. A ribbon printed with the faces of the Amazonian children (by Musuk Nolte), and the footprint of the jungle (the “Amazogramas” created by Roberto Huarcaya) will be suspended from a wooden canopy. There will also be tables and chairs from the Amazonian schools to reveal the precarious and harsh conditions in which teachers and students interact today.

“THE PERUVIAN PAVILION TELLS AN UNPRECEDENTED ACTION FOR THE BALANCED ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE AMAZONIAN ANCESTRAL WORLD AND THE MODERN WESTERN VISION OVER THIS LAND. LONGTIME SEEN AS A FRONTIER TO BE CONQUERED OR A REGION TO BE KEPT UNTOUCHED, PERU IS FIGHTING FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST THROUGH EDUCATION, EMPOWERING INDIGENOUS PEOPLE TO BE THE DEFENDERS OF THEIR OWN LAND.  IN THIS ATTEMPT, ARCHITECTURE IS THE FRAME FOR THIS MAJOR CULTURAL SHIFT.”

Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse, curators