Guanabara Bay is the landscape most often featured in visual representations of Rio de Janeiro, and one that forms an integral part of the city's idealised image.

 

Yet in reality, the waters and surrounding nature of Guanabara Bay tell a very different story. Every day, household waste discharged untreated into the bay combines with chemical runoff from nearby industries, threatening both flora and fauna. The waters are contaminated with dangerous levels of heavy metals, including mercury.

 

Indigo is a plant native to Brazil. Before colonisation, Indigenous people used it to dye fabrics, and its use continued through commercial plantations after colonisation, in the area that is now the state of Rio de Janeiro.

 

Indigo is an antidote to mercury poisoning.

 

In the work THE COLOR OF RIO BAY, indigo dye was applied to negatives featuring views of Guanabara Bay.

 

Through this confrontation of different aspects of the territory, and through an act of metaphorical purification, Elsa Leydier seeks to show an over-represented landscape from a different point of view — through the prism of a story that the media avoid telling, so as not to tarnish the image of the place that hosted the aquatic events during the 2016 Olympic Games, and which greatly contributes to the idealised image of Rio de Janeiro.