"Flows, Reflows, and Transhumances" is a speculative, visual, sonic, and sculptural report on the liquid, solid, and gaseous elements of Serra da Estrela. It presents part of an ongoing investigation that I have been developing since 2021 in this territory, in collaboration with designer Maria Ruivo, with the participation of sound artist Fernando Mota (March 2023), and with the support of the long-term artistic grant (Re)Cri’arte promoted by the Municipality of Fundão (2022-2023).
The ongoing project aims to identify the existing dramatological dynamics [and the credible ones] among the rocks, erratic boulders, meteorology, memory, orality, and the movements of fresh water from the thaw and saltwater from the sea. Observing dams and water directing tubes as tools for manipulating and mastering the liquid and solid states of the Serra da Estrela also helps to understand the landscape (the stage where social forces and nature clash) and how these elements tell the story of this territory (the space where things take shape and exist, influenced by how they are used and shared, both by individuals and groups).
It also seeks to observe and speculate on the practices of the shepherds of Serra da Estrela, as they are the cultural elements that best know the sources, rivers, streams, and ponds, understand uncertain weather conditions, deal with the invisibility of fog, know the local fauna and flora, name the stones (lapões), know the mountain stories, and the protective spaces of the Serra da Estrela suitable for a single body.
This project also shows a particular interest in Lagoa Escura, a remote and difficult-to-access point, where many local myths seem to converge, with their poetic narratives and deeply rooted beliefs, widely discredited by the Scientific Expedition of 1881, carried out by the Society of Geography of Lisbon, which dedicatedly investigated this same location.
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