Les Serrenhos du Caldeirão, exercices en anthropologie fictionnelle

Os Serrenhos do Caldeirão – exercícios em antropologia ficcional (The Caldeirão Highlanders – exercises in fictional anthropology) is a piece created by Vera Mantero at the invitation of DeVIR/CaPA, Faro, in the context of the Encontros do Devir festival,  held in 2012. It addresses the desertification/depopulation of the Serra  do Caldeirão hills, in the Algarve. 

Combining her own  video with film shot by Michel Giacometti, and in particular footage on  the subject of work songs, Vera Mantero casts a perceptive eye over  traditional activities of rural life in general and knowledge of the oral cultures of northern and southern Portugal and of other continents. The whole piece is populated by voices that come from afar. Silence. The hills. With this sensitive portrait of the people of the Serra do Caldeirão, Vera Mantero speaks to us of people who possess a  wisdom we are losing, a wisdom in the connection between body and  spirit, between daily life and art. But a wisdom that we can (and  should, for our own sake) revive.

Source: http://www.rencontreschoregraphiques.com