A story of the Amazon rainforest, rubber, and displacement, marked by the exploitation of the land and its social and environmental consequences.
 
In early 2019, Aleix Plademunt traveled to Iberia (Peru) and discovered a natural paradise—vast stretches of Amazon rainforest of incalculable richness—currently under threat and attack by the politicians and businesspeople of the day.
 
For centuries, Iberia was inhabited by indigenous peoples living along the banks of the Tahuamanu River. In the second half of the 19th century, Bolivian settlers led by the Suárez brothers drove them out and began exploiting rubber trees, or *shiringa* (*Hevea brasiliensis*), to harvest gum and latex. In 1903, Máximo Rodríguez Gonzales, a 38-year-old rubber trader from Asturias, arrived in the region accompanied by his brother Baldomero, also in search of *shiringa*.
Plademunt examines the origins of the town’s name—Iberia—and some of the consequences of Rodríguez’s arrival: the displacement of indigenous peoples and the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources for export.
 
Aleix Plademunt (Girona, Spain, 1980) is a photographer. His work examines the human relationship with the land—both rural and urban—from social, historical, ecological, and philosophical perspectives, articulating a vision that re-evaluates concepts such as space, place, dominion, and human intervention in the landscape.