THE RIVERS OF THE COMMUNITY
A research and artistic creation project
Sax on the Road + Binaural Nodar
Second cycle of fieldwork
March 18th – 28th, 2024
A project produced by Binaural Nodar with dissemination support from the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community.
Since the dawn of civilization, riverside landscapes have been privileged places for the establishment and development of communities. Rivers are a source of drinking water, food, hygiene, communication between places, psychosocial well-being, meetings, leisure, artistic inspiration, symbolism and spirituality, among many other aspects.
The territory of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community, made up of fourteen municipalities in the Portuguese Center region, comprises a great diversity of rivers, framed from north to south by three main river basins: the Douro, the Vouga and the Mondego. These three rivers and their tributaries (such as the Paiva and the Dão) even define some of the borders between municipalities and, consequently, part of the map of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunicipal community itself.
Riverside landscapes are therefore both natural and cultural realities and each riverside village, each bend in the river and each tributary, however small, helps to define the specific “spirit of place” of each of the countless communities that make up a region.
Since the beginning of its activities in the region, Binaural Nodar has given crucial importance to riverside landscapes; firstly, because the organization itself was literally born by the river, in the village of Nodar bathed by the Paiva river; but also because over the years it has developed artistic residencies and festivals linked to some of the rivers in the area, as was the case with the Paivascapes Festival in 2011 and the Vougascapes artist residency cycles between 2015 and 2018.
Binaural Nodar announces the second phase of research for the project “Os Rios da Comunidade” (The Rivers of the Community), a collaboration between the organization’s team and the musical group Sax on the road, for the conception of an album and musical and multimedia show dedicated to fourteen rivers in the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community, each corresponding to one of the fourteen municipalities that form the community.
During the research period, the sound and visual mapping of the fourteen chosen rivers will be completed:
Aguiar da Beira: River Coja
Carregal do Sal: River Cabanas
Castro Daire: River Paiva
Mangualde: River Mondego
Nelas: River Castelo
Oliveira de Frades: River Vouga
Penalva do Castelo: River Carapito
São Pedro do Sul: River Sul
Santa Comba Dão: River Dão
Sátão: River Sátão
Tondela: River Dinha
Viseu: River Pavia
Vila Nova de Paiva: River Mau
Vouzela: River Alfusqueiro
Credits:
Research coordination: Luís Costa
Artistic coordination: António Manuel Ramos and Dolores Spínola (Sax on the Road)
Research, cataloging and archiving team: Ana Margarida Ferreira, Liliana Silva, Luis Costa and Nely Ferreira
Musical creation: António Manuel Ramos and Dolores Spínola (Sax on the Road)
Poetic texts: Luís Costa
Audiovisual editing: Luís Costa
Graphic design: Liliana Silva
Binaural Nodar is a cultural organization supported by the Portuguese Republic – Culture | Directorate-General for the Arts.