Riversick

"Riversick" is a work about how people and nature share the space in Manaus (the largest city in the Amazon region, Brazil) and its surroundings.

Manaus is the biggest city in the Amazon region: around 2 million inhabitants. Although it is located by Negro River and next to the meeting of waters from Negro and the Solimoes river (which marks the beginning of the Amazon River), it hasn't been planned for its growth. Also, despite been located in the heart of the Amazon, it is the not forested. It has also been suffering with the pollution of its watercourses. In other words it is a big city which seems to have turned its back to nature.

The presence of an industrial pole made Manaus was sought as a real Eldorado for people from other regions of the country. However, the financial crisis has caused layoffs, which has fueled violence and other problems such as the emergence of slums, which contribute to deforestation and pollution of the rivers and creeks in the city.

The goal of this project is to visually transcribe the relations among human beings, nature and urban space, which are always in conflict.

The name of the series comes from a play of words homesick ( "homesick") and (seasick) "nauseated by displacement on the sea" and "river" (because of the geographical location of Manaus, on the edge of two of the largest rivers the world - Solimoes and Negro).