* Leônidas Oliveira
Tenho duas obras de Sebastião Salgado. Uma delas ganhei em 2010, quando dirigia o Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto, em Belo Horizonte. A outra, recebi de um grande amigo, Afonso Borges. Ambas me acompanham como quem guarda não apenas um gesto de amizade, mas um chamado silencioso à contemplação. Numa delas, indígenas observam o horizonte, entre a mata amazônica e o céu – imagem de vigília e pertença, epifania do humano em comunhão com a Terra. Sempre que passo por ela, tenho a impressão de que não sou eu quem a contempla, mas ela quem me observa.
É essa a natureza da arte de Sebastião Salgado: ela nos vê, nos exige, nos devolve a nós mesmos. Sua morte, há poucos dias, não é um apagamento, mas uma transfiguração. O artista permanece. Vive não só na memória, mas em suas imagens – que são, mais do que registros do mundo, manifestações da alma da humanidade.
A morte de Sebastião Salgado não é um fim. É uma dobra no tempo. Aquele que percorreu os confins da Terra com o olhar de quem busca mais do que paisagens – que procura, na verdade, os limites da dignidade humana – não cessa com a matéria. Como os grandes artistas da história da humanidade, Salgado pertence agora ao domínio do simbólico. E do essencial.
Nascido no solo de Minas Gerais, em Aimorés, à beira do Rio Doce, seu destino não foi apenas o da travessia geográfica. Foi, sobretudo, a travessia ontológica. Abandonando a carreira de economista no centro racional do mundo (Paris), Salgado deslocou-se em direção a uma estética do humano. Munido apenas de uma câmera, fez da luz e da sombra o seu idioma filosófico. E, com ele, compôs uma das mais potentes epopeias visuais de nosso tempo.
A fotografia de Salgado é mais que arte: é revelação. Em suas imagens há o que o filósofo Hans-Georg Gadamer chamaria de “fusão de horizontes” — a verdade se dá ali onde o olhar do artista e o mundo representado se tornam inseparáveis. Não há distância entre o sujeito que fotografa e o objeto retratado: há um pertencimento comum à condição humana. Como nas tragédias gregas, a beleza da imagem se dá pelo drama que carrega. Há pathos em cada centelha de prata.
Em Trabalhadores, por exemplo, Salgado se apropria do gesto épico para narrar o esforço dos que constroem civilizações e, ao mesmo tempo, permanecem invisíveis à História. Em Êxodos, a estética da peregrinação dos desterrados assume contornos bíblicos. O que se vê ali não é apenas migração – é destinação trágica. Em Gênesis, por outro lado, o artista opera o retorno ao sagrado originário. Florestas, montanhas, animais e povos originários reaparecem como hierofanias, na acepção de Mircea Eliade: manifestações do sagrado na realidade sensível, em que o mundo natural não é apenas cenário, mas expressão do divino. Salgado, assim, restitui à Terra sua condição de templo – e à imagem, sua função litúrgica.
Há uma teologia laica em sua obra. O claro-escuro que domina suas composições remete não apenas ao barroco, mas a uma visão agostiniana do mundo: o bem e o mal se entrelaçam, mas a luz é sempre possível. Seus retratados — pobres, trabalhadores, exilados, indígenas — não estão nus de sentido. Pelo contrário: carregam uma dignidade que desafia as estruturas de poder que os invisibilizam. O que há, ali, é o grito silencioso do ser, como o definia Heidegger.
Salgado jamais foi voyeur da miséria. Ele é, como escreveu Susan Sontag, um “testemunho ético”. Sua fotografia não consome o sofrimento alheio como espetáculo. Antes, o resgata de seu esquecimento. Nas palavras de Walter Benjamin, o verdadeiro historiador “dá voz aos mortos e devolve luz ao fragmento”. Salgado é esse historiador da luz.
Mas sua grandeza está também no gesto que transcende a imagem. Com Lélia Wanick Salgado, sua companheira e curadora, fundou o Instituto Terra — onde replantou uma floresta devastada pelo tempo, pela ganância e pela indiferença. Ele viu a ruína do mundo e decidiu cultivar árvores. Há nisso uma ética do cuidado que se inscreve na tradição de Paul Ricoeur: a memória, o luto e a ação como três tempos da responsabilidade humana.
A morte de Salgado, por isso, é paradoxal: porque marca sua entrada definitiva no panteão dos que permanecem. Como Rosa, compreendeu que “o sertão está em toda parte”; como Drummond, sabia que “Minas é palavra abissal” — e como os antigos profetas, viu na miséria uma revelação, mas também uma possibilidade.
A mineiridade de Salgado é de outra ordem. Não se trata apenas de origem territorial. Trata-se de uma lente ontológica. Seu olhar era vertical, profundo, essencial. Como as montanhas de Minas, ele não se deixava decifrar de imediato. Era preciso tempo, silêncio, atenção. E o que dali brotava era sempre humano — demasiado humano.
A morte não apaga o artista. Apenas o transforma em legado. E o de Sebastião Salgado será, ainda por muito tempo, bússola moral e estética para um mundo em vertigem. Suas fotografias seguirão como ícones de um tempo em que a imagem ainda podia ser revelação — e não consumo. Em tempos de excesso e banalidade, Salgado nos ensinou a pausa. A escuta. O sagrado da presença.
Descanse em paz, Sebastião.
Mas, como na tradição que escapa ao tempo, sua paz será movimento. Porque suas imagens, como os grandes textos, continuarão a nos inquietar. E, mais do que isso, a nos humanizar.
*Leônidas Oliveira, Ph.D., secretário de Estado de Cultura e Turismo de Minas Gerais
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