Folds of Mbyá-Guaraní voices resonate across the landscapes of Misiones Province, a borderland between Brazil and Paraguay. A specular device presents us with memories of past landscapes. The reflected image appears altered: the concept of landscape emerges as a shifting reality—a space in constant resignification, activated by the voices of those who inhabit or once inhabited these territories. 

The Paraná rainforest is a vital remnant of the Atlantic Forest. Over the last 120 years, 95% of this ecosystem has been lost to deforestation, largely at the hands of foreign companies. Severe flooding in local towns and the migration of entire families to urban centers are among the many consequences of this destruction. 

This project explores how identity and memory intertwine with territory in a continuous process of reconstruction and reinterpretation of the migrant’s affective space. The voices of migrants, recorded through interviews, undergo a process akin to that of a mirror—a sonic tautology or folding that enhances the tonal properties of speech while opening an abstract dimension. These folds compose a piece that transforms the specular matter forming the physical dimension of the artwork, resonating and retrieving the traces of the territory as a portal of memories and affective spaces. 

Mbyá-guaraní testimonies:
Beatriz Villalba, Javier Villalba – Perutí Village – El Alcázar (Excerpt from La trama del vestido, Gricelda Rinaldi).
Arturo Duarte – Andresito Community, San Ignacio.
Ruperta Morinigo, Silverio Morinigo, Luis Morinigo, Elena Villalba, Benitez Pablo – Yacutinga Community, Gdor. Roca.
Desiderio Acosta, Hilario Acosta – Tekoa Takuapi Community, Ruiz de Montoya. 

Device design: Luciano Piccilli
Programming: Julián Di Pietro
Production: Pablo Piccilli
Video and photography: Luciano Piccilli
Video recordings were made in the native forest reserve of Estancia Santa Inés and in Profundidad, Misiones (January 2024). 

With support from: Binaural Nodar Cultural Association, Vouzela, Portugal; Espacios del Arte Sonoro research group, National University of Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

The sound sculpture MONTE explores the relationship between identity and memory with regard to the Paraná rainforest at the border between Brazil and Paraguay, an area that is at the same time one of the most biologically important ecosystems, as well as one of the most endangered rainforests in the world. Using recordings of voices from migrants, that emblematically stand for the traces of the area’s history, the artwork confronts the audience with a practically and contextually interlinked phenomenon: the playback of the sounds through the mirror interferes with the mirror’s image, causing a distorted reflection of the surroundings in the mirror, which again resonates within the audible. Retrieving traces of the territory hence becomes a process of interacting with memories colored by the current environment, creating a situation that throws the audience back on themselves and their own reflections.