The Auguste Comte House will present "Rondônia" by Emilio Azevedo as part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival. The exhibition, subtitled "How I Fell in Love with a Line," examines the visual transformation of Amazonian territory and offers an open narrative about its integration into Brazilian national space.
The exhibition explores territorial transformations through a dialogue between archival materials and contemporary images, inviting viewers to perceive the temporal and symbolic layers that traverse the forest. Azevedo's visual investigation centers around archives documenting Marshal Rondon's explorations in the early 20th century and their contemporary extension, particularly the Trans-Amazonian Highway BR-364.
The contemporary photographs engage in dialogue with archives preserved at the Quai Branly Museum, offering a cross-referenced view of past and present. Through montage techniques and confrontation between archival work and field surveying, the artist connects seemingly unrelated events. In a manner reminiscent of Beckett, one digression leads to another, as facts, hypotheses, official history, erased memory, and personal narrative interweave, allowing fiction to infiltrate reality or revealing the fictional elements within grand national narratives.
Each location becomes a mirror of another: traces of ancient explorations illuminate current transformations, while contemporary roads and landscapes reveal the social, political, and symbolic tensions that traverse the territory. The exhibition's construction reflects this journey, inviting viewers to move through images and archives while perceiving time and space as interconnected strata.
In connection with this exploration, the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum will present Emilio Azevedo's works from his "Rondônia (How I Fell in Love with a Line)" project from October 9, 2025, to January 26, 2026. This project won the museum's Photography Prize.
The Auguste Comte House, the final residence of the philosopher and founder of positivism, serves as both an apartment-museum and an archives-library center focused on the philosopher and 19th-century thought. The house has hosted photographic exhibitions as part of PhotoSaintGermain for several years and presents scientific exhibitions about Comte and positivism.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Quai Branly Museum and with support from the Brazilian Embassy. Daniel Jablonski serves as the exhibition curator. The Auguste Comte House is located at 10, rue Monsieur-le-Prince, 75006 Paris, and can be reached at 01 43 26 08 56.
A special event will take place on Friday, November 14, 2025, at 7:00 PM, featuring a discussion between Armelle Enders, a historian specializing in Brazil, and photographer Emilio Azevedo about the Rondon expedition and the "Rondônia" exhibition at the Auguste Comte House.
The exhibition will be open from November 6-30 Tuesday through Saturday with free admission from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM. From December 2-20, the exhibition will follow the museum's regular hours and admission fees, open Tuesday and Wednesday from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, or by appointment on other days.
