Selva Sentida: Julieta Rodríguez Reimagines the Misiones Rainforest Through Art and Textile
At UNE, visual artist and lawyer Julieta Rodríguez transformed the landscape of the Misiones rainforest into an immersive artistic experience—one built through textile, poetry and more than 400 hours of handcrafted work.
The Misiones rainforest has long been represented through photography, painting, literature and tourism. But in “Selva Sentida,” visual artist and lawyer Julieta Rodríguez chose another language: the language of weaving.
Created as an exploration of the emotional and cultural relationship between people and the rainforest, the installation presented at UNE offered a contemporary reinterpretation of one of Misiones’ defining landscapes. Rather than simply depicting the jungle, Rodríguez sought to create an environment that could be inhabited, explored and experienced.
“My experience at UNE was deeply moving. Selva Sentida was born as a way of reinterpreting the Misiones rainforest through visual poetry and the language of textiles. Being able to finally see it inhabited, explored and felt by other people was incredibly emotional.”
The result was not simply an artwork to be observed from a distance. It became a space through which visitors could encounter the rainforest from another perspective—one where texture, form, material and imagination replaced the conventional boundaries between landscape and artwork.
More Than 400 Hours of Work
Behind the visual impact of the installation was an intensely handmade process. Rodríguez dedicated more than 400 hours to the creation of the work, involving numerous hands and an extended process of transforming an initial idea into a physical environment.
For the artist, this was both a creative and deeply personal challenge.
“It was also an enormous personal and creative challenge: more than 400 hours of handcrafted work, many hands involved, and a process of trusting an idea until I could finally see it take shape.”
The collective dimension is particularly significant. Textile art is inherently connected to processes of making, repetition and accumulation. Individual gestures become part of something larger, much as individual elements of the rainforest form an interconnected ecosystem.
A Contemporary Language for a Local Identity
For Rodríguez, “Selva Sentida” was also an opportunity to speak about Misiones beyond its traditional visual representations.
The rainforest is not merely a scenic backdrop or a tourism icon. It is part of the province’s identity, memory and everyday experience.
Rodríguez’s approach adds another dimension: the possibility of telling the story of the rainforest through sensation.
Instead of reproducing the jungle literally, she translated its essence into a tactile and poetic vocabulary. The installation invited viewers to move beyond looking and toward feeling—a particularly appropriate approach to a landscape whose sounds, textures, colors and density are as important as its visual appearance.
When Art Becomes a Way of Telling a Story
Perhaps the most important aspect of Selva Sentida is its underlying proposition: that art can offer new ways of understanding where we come from.
“For me, participating in UNE meant being able to tell something about our identity and our nature from a contemporary perspective, and above all, confirming that art can create new ways of telling the story of our identity.”
That idea places the installation within a broader contemporary conversation about Misiones: how can a province with such a powerful natural and cultural identity continue to tell its story in ways that feel relevant to new generations?
For Rodríguez, the answer is not necessarily to reproduce the past, but to reinterpret it.
Through textile, craftsmanship and visual poetry, “Selva Sentida” transforms the rainforest from a landscape into an experience—one that connects nature, identity, memory and contemporary artistic expression.
At UNE, Rodríguez’s work demonstrated that the story of the Misiones rainforest does not have to be told only through words or images.
Sometimes, it can be woven.
