The Brazilian rainforest is a contested cultural landscape, today more than ever. In 1998, the German photographer Andrea Altemüller travelled to Brazil, where she met people who transform raw materials from the rain forest in huge variety of ways and turned this into the two photo series Earth from my river and Deforestation of the rainforest. The exhibition Metamorphosis. Brasilien 1998 is the first time these series of photos are shown side by side.

In the photo series Earth from my river Altemüller portrays the artist Izer Campos. Not far from the metropolis Belém she creates organic ceramic sculptures for which she takes the material from the riverbed in the rhythm of the tides. The photo series Deforestation of the rainforest, on the other hand, thematizes the deforestation of the rainforest for the production of charcoal. Here, an extent of destruction becomes apparent without denouncing the loggers and charcoal burners who often only pursue this work out of economic necessity.

The exhibition Metamorphosis. Brazil 1998 confronts these two photo series for the first time. It opens up a reflexive space of thought in which creative and destructive human forces meet.

Andrea Altemüller was born in Stuttgart and studied photography and graphic design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Her works can be found in renowned collections such as the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Daimler Art Collection , the Banco Espirito Santo Collection in Portugal, Eric Franck Fine Art in London and the Bibliothèque National in Paris. Andrea Altemüller currently lives in Vienna and works on her photographic projects all over the world.