Paulo Martin’s Institute plays a key role in this program, bringing the rich culinary heritage of the Amazon to European audiences. Chefs Paulo Anijar and Esther Weyl, both from the Brazilian state of Pará, lead workshops on Amazonian ingredients for culinary professionals and curate cocktails and coffee breaks at events hosted by the Brazilian Embassies in Berlin (June 4–5), Paris (June 2 and 10), and Brussels (June 3). Every dish and drink features ingredients sourced from Amazonian biodiversity, produced by traditional communities, Indigenous peoples, or small local industries, generating jobs, income, cultural value, and directly contributing to forest preservation. Supported by the Institute for Climate and Society, the Inter-American Development Bank, Banco do Brasil, the Amazon Investor Coalition, and Apex Brasil, these activities demonstrate how culinary diplomacy can turn ecological awareness into shared experience and exchange.

At the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, a pocket exhibition dedicated to the BioInsecta initiative brings science and art into dialogue. The display highlights the astonishing diversity of Amazonian insects — from forest floor to canopy — and the scientific challenges of studying such a complex ecosystem. This Brazil–Germany collaboration stands as an example of science diplomacy, showing how joint research can strengthen not only conservation but also mutual understanding between nations.

Running concurrently, the exhibition “A Terra é o Útero do Tempo” (“The Earth is the Womb of Time”), part of the “Cosmopercepções da Floresta” project, presents works by Indigenous women’s collectives alongside photographic documentation of performances staged in Brazilian and German archaeological archives. The opening event features a 15-minute film accompanied by live music from Patrick Angello, reinterpreting a century-old expedition documentary to challenge Eurocentric portrayals of the rainforest. The screening is followed by a debate with artists and scholars on how historical imagery has shaped perceptions of the Amazon.

Supported by the Goethe-Institut, this collaboration between Anita Ekman (independent curator and artist), Freg Stokes (Max Planck Institute), and Ivan Barreto (Tukano Indigenous archaeologist) reimagines cultural diplomacy through art and knowledge exchange. By confronting colonial narratives and revealing the “cosmophobia” embedded in Western visions of the forest, the project invites audiences to see the Amazon through a plurality of worldviews.

Finally, the research-focused event “Archaeology and Cosmoperceptions of the Forest” explores intersections between archaeology, Indigenous epistemologies, and environmental preservation. Through critical dialogue, the program examines how scientific methodologies, cutting-edge technologies, and collaborative mapping can support the documentation and safeguarding of Amazonian cultural heritage. It also addresses the legacies of colonialism in knowledge production while pointing toward emerging, decolonial perspectives.

Across its venues and disciplines, Amazon Week 2025 stands as a living example of cultural diplomacy in action — a bridge where environmental science, Indigenous knowledge, and artistic creation converge. The week’s events invite Europe to see the Amazon not only as a distant ecosystem to be protected but as a living culture whose preservation depends on shared responsibility, dialogue, and respect.

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