The Yanomami Struggle is a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the collaboration and friendship between artist and activist Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami people, one of the largest Indigenous groups living in Amazonia today. Following acclaimed presentations at the Instituto Moreira Salles (São Paulo), the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris), and the Barbican Centre (London), among other venues, the exhibition will be expanded at The Shed to include more than 80 drawings and paintings by Yanomami artists André Taniki, Ehuana Yaira, Joseca Mokahesi, Orlando Nakɨ uxima, Poraco Hɨko, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, and Vital Warasi. Visitors will also discover new video works by contemporary Yanomami filmmakers Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino, Morzaniel Ɨramari, and Roseane Yariana.

These works will appear alongside more than 200 photographs by Claudia Andujar that trace the artist’s encounters with the Yanomami and continue to raise visibility for their struggle to protect their land, people, and culture. The dialogue established between the contemporary Yanomami artists’ work and Andujar’s photographs offers an unprecedented vision of Yanomami culture, society, and visual art. The contemporary Yanomami works will be shown in New York for the first time, building the most extensive presentation of Yanomami art in the US to date.

The Yanomami Struggle is organized by IMS, the Fondation Cartier, and The Shed in partnership with Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Hutukara Associação Yanomami.

Curator
Thyago Nogueira
Assisted by
Valentina Tong

Exhibition page @ The Shed
The Yanomami Struggle

Claudia Andujar was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1931 and grew up in Transylvania. During the Second World War, Claudia’s father, who was Jewish, was deported to Dachau where he was killed along with most of her paternal relatives. Andujar fled with her mother to Switzerland, immigrated first to the United States in 1946, then to Brazil in 1955 where she began a career as a photojournalist before becoming an activist. She is 92 years old, currently lives in São Paulo, and dedicates most of her time to the Yanomami cause.

Yanomami Address

Davi Kopenawa and Dário Kopenawa, accompanied by Claudia Andujar, addressed the audience on February 4, 2023 to mark the opening weekend of The Yanomami Struggle exhibition at The Shed, in New York. The event included remarks by Thyago Nogueira.

Meet the artists

On February 4, 2023, featured artists Ehuana Yaira, Joseca Mokahesi, and Morzaniel Ɨramari presented their works during this event moderated by Thyago Nogueira and Valentina Tong, to mark the opening weekend of The Yanomami Struggle exhibition at The Shed, in New York. Dário Kopenawa was on stage to provide consecutive translation for the Yanomami-speaking artists.