From October 29, 2025, to March 15, 2026, the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum will present the German premiere of AMAZÔNIA by Sebastião Salgado, one of the world’s most celebrated photographers. The exhibition was conceived and curated by Lélia Wanick-Salgado. Trained as an architect and urban planner, she was for decades the artistic partner and wife of the recently deceased Brazilian photographer. AMAZÔNIA turns its gaze to the rainforest and the Indigenous communities that shape and protect it. Salgado’s photographs unite monumental landscapes with compelling portraits, revealing both the beauty and the vulnerability of the Amazon region. Interviews with Indigenous leaders, shamans, and activists further open a window onto their perspectives on this threatened ecosystem. The near-simultaneous opening of the exhibition with the UN Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém underscores its immediacy and relevance.
Sebastião Salgado und Lélia Wanick Salgado © Yann Arthus Bertrand
The architect and curator, and one of the most important photographers of our time, have been working together for decades. Together they conceived the AMAZÔNIA exhibition and founded the Instituto Terra in 1998-a model project for reforestation and the protection of endangered ecosystems.
The accompanying program places Indigenous voices at the center – voices that are often overlooked in global climate debates. Indigenous artists, activists, and thinkers from the nine countries of the Amazon region bring their perspectives to the forefront. Through readings, debates, workshops, and films, the program addresses climate justice, solidarity-based economies, COP30, art, urban realities, cosmologies,
and the rights of nature.
It connects international perspectives with local realities in Cologne. The program is aimed at children and families, young people, schools, communities, students, and all those interested. Cologne’s communities are actively involved so that global perspectives and local experiences meet. In this way, the RJM becomes not just a place where Indigenous perspectives are “exhibited,” but one where they are actively represented – a space for exchange, learning, and imagining a shared future.
A space for young voices, social media and culture. Topics include urban life, Indigenous rap, films by Indigenous women filmmakers, the climate crisis and alternative ways of living. On Thursdays and weekends, workshops, listening sessions and formats of youth culture invite participation – together with South American communities from Cologne. THE FUTURE IS INDIGENOUS.
For four months everything here revolves around nature, climate and the future. Every weekend, children from the age of 6 and their families can paint, craft, write, watch films, read books and take part in workshops to creatively explore solutions for tomorrow. At the centre grows a wish tree that makes children’s hopes and sense of responsibility for a just future visible.
In the RJM’s permanent exhibition, artists from the Amazon region expand the exhibition AMAZÔNIA. Through video, music, photography and painting, they address identity, urbanity and spirituality, point to destroyed habitats and a threatened future – and make their struggles and new ways of seeing the world and the future tangible. THE FUTURE IS INDIGENOUS.
Conversation with Francisco Piyãko Asháninka and Beto Marubo from Brazil at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum
Francisco Piyâko© Francisco Piyâko
Beto Marubo©Sebastião Salgado
“THE FUTURE IS INDIGENIOUS". Amazonian visions and struggles”
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
Artist & Curator in Dialogue: with Olinda Silvano (Shipibo-Konibo) & Alfredo Villar (Lima).
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
Walk & Talk with Olinda Silvano and Alfredo Villar. Introduction to Kené and Nii Ken
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
Kené design and drawing workshop with Olinda Silvano
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
Community meeting in the Yellow Room, with in.Haus e. V.
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
La Fiesta Amazónica – Art, Dialogue & Music with Olinda Silvano & Alfredo Villar
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
Tuesday to Sunday: 10 am – 6 pm
Thursday: 10 am – 8 pm
Every first Thursday of the month: 10 am – 10 pm – free admission (for visitors from Cologne)
Open on public holidays (including Mondays) as on Sundays
On weekends: Hosts at the AMAZÔNIA exhibition
Every first Thursday: varied evening program
From November 29: Space4Kids – Kids4Climate, every weekend – 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission
Audio guide in German – available for hire or as an MP3 download.
An accompanying brochure is available for the exhibition (€6)
Closed on Mondays
Closed on 24/25/31 December 2025 and 1 January 2026
Closed for Carnival (February 12, 2026 and, February 16, 2026)
Prices
Single ticket for the AMAZONIA special exhibition: €15, reduced price: €12
• Combined ticket for the AMAZONIA special exhibition and permanent exhibition: €18, reduced price: €15
• Group ticket for AMAZONIA special exhibition for 10 or more people: €12 per person
• Group ticket for AMAZONIA special exhibition & permanent exhibition for 10 or more people: €15 per person
Guided tours
Every Saturday and on the first Thursday of the month (Cologne Day), the Cologne Museum Service offers public guided tours for adults. Family tours are offered on Sundays. Booking of tours and workshops for school classes, groups, and individual visitors at: museenkoeln.de | Booking or service.museumsdienst@stadt-koeln.de
Tram stop Neumarkt (2 minutes on foot)
KVB lines 1, 3, 4, 9, 16, 18 and bus lines 136, 146
AMAZÔNIA Talks #1 – From Seeing to Listening: The Reversal of the Gaze
To kick off the new series “The Future is Indigenous,” the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum invites you to a special evening with Beto Marubo (Javari Valley) and Francisco Piyãko Asháninka (Rio Amônia/Acre) from Brazil. These two individuals are among those whose lives Sebastião Salgado has captured in his exhibition “AMAZÔNIA.” Their faces and families are part of the photographs that are being shown worldwide. But on this evening, they will step out of the pictures and speak for themselves about the protection of the Amazon, indigenous perspectives on the climate crisis, and their expectations for COP30 in Belém.
Joining them on the podium: Andreas Wolter, Chairman of the Cologne Climate Alliance.
Moderator: Nanette Snoep, Artistic Director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
Admission: € 8, combined ticket with exhibition: € 20,
Cologne VHS Forum at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum
1/2 November 2025
“THE FUTURE IS INDIGENIOUS“. Amazonian visions and struggles”
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne
Curated by Alfredo Villar
The Amazon is not a place, but a transnational, living space that spans nine countries—from Bolivia to Colombia, from Peru to Venezuela. It encompasses forests, rivers, and cities, rural communities as well as urban centers, where more than 70% of the Amazon’s population now lives. The intervention brings together seven artists from different regions of Amazonia whose works open up new perspectives on art, memory, the future, and resistance. Two of them are coming to Cologne from Peru for the opening: Olinda Silvano, an artist from the Shipibo-Konibo people of the Ucayali region, whose paintings, textiles, and large-scale collective works are based on geometric Kené patterns—visual languages that connect the body, the river, and the cosmos. And Alfredo Villar, an artist, curator, and musician from Lima, who reinterprets the Chicha movement—an urban, hybrid culture between Amazonia and the city—as an artistic practice in his work. With “THE FUTURE IS INDIGENIOUS“ they open up a space for listening, remembrance, and exchange.
1.11. 25
3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Artist & Curator in Dialogue: with Olinda Silvano (Shipibo-Konibo) & Alfredo Villar (Lima).
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
An afternoon of celebration to mark the opening of the new accompanying intervention THE FUTURE IS INDIGENOUS. Olinda Silvano comes from the Shipibo-Konibo community on the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon region. Her art is inextricably linked to the practice of Kené, an ancient form of knowledge and design passed down by women. Alfredo Villar, artist, curator and musician from Lima, contributes the energy of the chicha movement – a hybrid urban culture born out of migration, colour and music that connects its Amazonian roots with the city. Together, they will explore art as a collective practice with shared, fluid authorship, collaboration, memory and resistance. After their talk, it’s time to loosen up and unwind – to the sound of vinyls from Alfredo’s personal collection featuring chicha, Amazonian cumbia, psychedelic tropical beats and a range of Peruvian drinks and snacks.
2. 11. 25
2:00–3:30 p.m.
Walk & Talk with Olinda Silvano and Alfredo Villar. Introduction to Kené and Nii Ken
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne
On the second day of the opening, artist Olinda Silvano and curator Alfredo Villar will introduce the audience to the world of Kené art, a living tradition from the Peruvian Amazon region. Created by women of the Shipibo-Konibo community, Kené expresses the connection between the physical, spiritual and natural worlds. Through her work “Nii Kené”, Olinda Silvano provides insights into her artistic practice and cultural heritage.
2.11.25
4:00–6:30 p.m.
Kené design and drawing workshop with Olinda Silvano
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne
Artist Olinda Silvano offers an introduction to the world of Kené art. Kené are visual languages passed down through generations of women – lines that are sung, thought and drawn. As part of the workshop, participants will learn about the cultural significance of Kené and create their own designs. Maximum 15 participants.
To sign up, please contact:RJM-veranstaltungen@stadt-koeln.de Participation fee: € 15
6 November 2025
from 4 p.m. Community meeting in the Yellow Room, with in.Haus e. V.
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne
The YellowRoom is a place within the RJM’s permanent exhibition space dedicated to discussions, workshops and exchange, where community nights are held every first Thursday of the month alongside weekend workshops, workshops with schools and students or film workshops. The YellowRoom is curated by a collective: Nayra Ramos, (In-Haus e.V.), Büsra Dogan (RJM intern, University of Cologne), Yasemin Cerci (RJM intern, University of Cologne) in collaboration with different communities throughout Cologne
6.11. 25
7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
La Fiesta Amazónica – Art, Dialogue & Music with Olinda Silvano & Alfredo Villar
To conclude the opening week, a Walk & Talk stroll through the intervention THE FUTURE IS INDIGENOUS, plus discussions about artistic positions, collective creativity, memory, and an urban Amazonia, followed by a DJ set featuring Alfredo’s personal vinyl collection: Amazonian cumbia, chicha, psychedelic rhythms and tropical grooves. Amazonia meets Cologne. La fiesta continúa.
For more information, dates and tickets please visit rjm-amazonia.de
