MY PLACE IN THE AMAZON: POETICS OF SPACE IN AN ANALOG COLLAGE WORKSHOP

Abstract

This article presents an experience report on the workshop My Place in the Amazon: Art in Education, held during the II Graduate Student Seminar of the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Roraima (PPGE/UFRR), with participants affiliated with the Graduate Program in Education in the Amazon (PGEDA), graduate students from PPGE/UFRR, and invited guests. Adopting a qualitative and interpretative approach, the study is structured around three theoretical axes, namely, the poetics of space and sensitive memory, based on Gaston Bachelard (1957); the sense of belonging to the Amazonian territory, discussed by Magali Franco Bueno (2002) and explored through the artistic experience of Alexandre Sequeira; and art as a pedagogical strategy, grounded in Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory as interpreted by Guy R. Lefrançois (2008). During the workshop, participants created analog collages guided by the following question: “What image of the Amazon do you carry within yourself—not the one you have seen in photographs, but the one you feel or have dreamed of?” The artworks fostered the construction of memories, affections, and imaginaries related to the territory. The reflection revealed that artistic language, mediated through a shared artistic experience, expanded participants’ understandings of the Amazon, establishing the workshop as a space for the production of sensitive, culturally situated knowledge and for strengthening the sense of belonging to the Amazonian territory.