Echoes of Gift
A publishing project by Ana Rodríguez, with María Puppo and Liliana Silva.
Co-production: Binaural Nodar, Linen Museum of Várzea de Calde and Civil Parish of Calde.
Interview with Uruguayan anthropologist Ana Rodríguez who develop between August 20th and September 10th, 2022 a creative residence in the rural territory of Várzea de Calde (Municipality of Viseu), hosted by Binaural Nodar and the Linen Museum of Várzea de Calde.
Ana Rodríguez has been working with memory, sound and orality in rural contexts, namely through her project Sound Map of Uruguay, and on this occasion her intervention addressed traditional practices linked to individual and communitarian care and health, which were transformed over time, yet still subsisting in rural areas of countries such as Portugal and Uruguay.
During the residency, an inquiry was made about these permanences and how they are currently signified by the beneficiaries of the aforementioned practices. In these processes, which can help to restore health, some plants can be involved, as well as stories that are transmitted orally over generations of people who lived or still live in rural contexts.
The current project resumes a first creative residency held in October 2020, as well as the project “Speaking Plants: Vegetable Memory Archive”, which retrospective exhibition was presented at the Linen Museum of Várzea de Calde between the end of 2019 and June 2020, and its final result will consist in the publication of a bilingual book “Echoes of Gift”, which will include texts by Ana Rodríguez and a vast set of photographs by María Puppo (Uruguay) and Liliana Silva (Portugal) that illustrate the sensory landscape related to with the aforementioned practices.
This creative residency was co-financed by the Municipality of Viseu and the General-Directorate for the Arts, having the co-production of the Linen Museum of Várzea de Calde and the Civil Parish of Calde.
Interview, video recording and editing by Liliana Silva (Binaural Nodar).