Anna Dantes

Selvagem

Selvagem, photo by Elisa Mendes

Creator, editor and curator Anna Dantes’ was awarded the 2024 AFIELD Fellowship for Selvagem, an initiative articulating memories and knowledge from indigenous and non-indigenous, traditional, scientific, academic and artistic communities, for the present and future of the Amazon, the Atlantic Rainforest and all the planet’s forests.

Selvagem launched in 2018 in collaboration with Ailton Krenak, a prominent indigenous thinker and environmentalist, is a collaborative cycle of studies about life in Brazil that bridges indigenous and non-indigenous knowledge systems, fostering a cultural and environmental movement aimed at protecting forests and addressing global crises.

With an audience of 80,000 people who access their publications, videos and events, Comunidade Selvagem forms a collaborative network to activate the profound cognitive shift needed to respond to the current state of crisis – climatic, anthropocentric, spiritual.

Amongst many things, Selvagem acts as an editorial house producing and disseminating knowledge and material in diverse formats from audiovisual including Wild Arrows, animations and music from diverse indigenous, artistic and scientific archives, opening the way for students and the general public to ask questions to Hammock Talks, recorded conversations between Ailton Krenak and guests reflecting on life. ‘Notebooks’ are short texts transcribed from talks or produced specifically for the Selvagem platform, shared in digital format and translated into multiple languages.

Selvagem relies on its communities to activate the knowledge, working with, amongst others, individuals engaging with pedagogy, contemplating sensitive learning, the relationship between living beings, and pathways for education encompassing more pluriversal narratives, and people involved in the transcription and translation of all Selvagem content. Furthermore, Living Schools project is the effort of Selvagem to strengthen traditional knowledge in five indigenous territories through a large collaborative network.

All these actions are part of Selvagem‘s cultural and educational activities, unfolding the themes and discussions in different formats, audiences and languages.

Selvagem, photo by Beatriz Salgado

In 1994, Anna Dantes founded Dantes Editora, an editorial line closely linked to memory and plants, which eventually gave rise to projects like Selvagem

Since 2011, Anna has also been working with the Huni Kui people from the Acre Amazon, promoting the continuity of their culture.

As an extension of this work, Selvagem was launched in 2018 in collaboration with Ailton Krenak. 

Anna Dantes works on extending the editing experience to other formats – laboratories, workshops, magazines, curatorships, exhibitions, fashion collections, study cycles and films.

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