© Humberto Araújo

Em Circulação > The Caldeirão Highlanders, exercises in fictional anthropology by Vera Mantero, 2012

The Caldeirão Highlanders, exercises in fictional anthropology

by Vera Mantero, 2012

This work, created for the Encontros do Devir Festival, was developed around the process of desertification/dehumanisation of the Caldeirão Mountain, in the interior of Algarve (south of Portugal). One of the conditions of this commission was that I would have to record and use video images made on site. I did film at the mountain and I did incorporate images of mine in the piece but I mostly used Michel Giacometti’s films, especially the recordings of work songs.

The whole piece is peopled by voices that come from afar...

The sounds of the traditional “triangles” are used to reproduce the sound of silence, the sound of the earth. I reinterpret some of the songs brought to us by Giacometti and sing them to the workers I found on the mountain, reclaiming lost traditions, trying to reenact them.

But it is not just the music that is here at stake, it is also the spoken Word and the Earth; the words of an Antonin Artaud in combustion, of a Prévert hammered in the way of sound poetry (his words on ruins combining perfectly with the images of ruins I found on the mountain). The piece sheds a look on Giacometti’s precious musical (re)collection, on traditional rural practices and livelihoods, on oral cultures from the north to the south of Portugal and also from other continents, such as the references to South American native tribes (revealingly the audiences believe them to be Caldeirão highlanders!) brought to the piece through the research of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro.

With this “broad picture” of the Caldeirão highlanders I address in this piece all the different people that possess a knowledge that we lost, a knowledge we can find in the connection between body and spirit, between art and life. A knowledge that we can (and should, for our own good) retrieve. My dance at the end, with my precious cork trunk, alludes to this knowledge.

Vera Mantero

Ficha Artística

Conception and Performance
Vera Mantero

Light Design
Hugo Coelho - Aldeia da Luz and Vera Mantero

Video Script and Images
Vera Mantero

Video Editing
Hugo Coelho and Vera Mantero

Video excerpts from
Michel Giacometti’s complete film works: Salir (Serra do Caldeirão), Cava da Manta (Coimbra), Dornelas (Coimbra), Teixoso (Covilhã), Manhouce (Viseu), Córdova de S. Pedro Paus (Viseu) and Portimão (Algarve)

Text excerpts from
Antonin Artaud, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Jacques Prévert and Vera Mantero

Artistic Residences
Centro de Experimentação Artística - Lugar Comum/Fábrica da Pólvora de Barcarena/Câmara Municipal de Oeiras and DeVIR/CaPA

Coproduction
DeVIR/CaPA

Production
O Rumo do Fumo

Acknowledgment
Editora Tradisom

A commission
Encontros do DeVIR by DeVIR/CAPa (Faro)

Cronologia

1 December 2023, Festival Zinetika, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao/Spain
9 July 2022, Festival Planalto, Pavilhão da Escola Secundária de Moimenta da Beira, Moimenta da Beira/Portugal
11 - 12 March 2022, Sala Negra, NAVE, Santiago do Chile/Chile
11 September 2021, Teatrului German, Timișoara/Romania
11 June 2021, Art Non Stop, Cineteatro Marques Duque, Mértola/Portugal
16 March 2021, Festival Punto de Vista, Teatro Gayarre, Pamplona, Navarra/Spain
9 October 2020, Cultura em Expansão, Auditório Junta de Campanhã, Porto/Portugal
12 February 2020, Festival GUIdance, Pequeno Auditório, Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães/Portugal 
7 November 2019, Cirque - Le manége, scène nationale, Reims/France
7 March 2019, TQW Halle G, Tanzquartier Wien, Vienna/Austria
21 - 22 October 2018, Festival Contemporâneo de Dança, Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil, São Paulo/Brazil
15 September 2018, ui! Universidade Invisível/Comédias do Minho, Cineteatro João Verde, Monção/Portugal
19 - 20 July 2018, Festival de Barcelona Grec, La Caldera - centre de creació de dansa i arts escèniques, Barcelona/Spain
16 March 2017, DañsFabrik Festival de Brest, Le Petit Théâtre du Quartz, Brest/France
29 October 2017, B.A.D Bilbao Antzerki Dantza, La Fundicion, Bilbao/Spain
2 July 2017, Festival Conexão, São Luís do Maranhão/Brazil
28 June 2017, Festival Junta #3, Teresina/Brazil
16 - 18 May 2017, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Grand studio, Centre National de la Danse, Pantin/France
26 January 2017, festival Vivat la danse! 20th edition/Le Vivat, Salle COOP - Lycée Gustave Eiffel, Armentières/France
3 December 2016, Teatro Maria Matos, Festival Temps d'Images, Lisbon/Portugal
4 November 2016, Centro Cultural de Lagos, Lagos/Portugal 
22 October 2016, Teatro Viriato, Viseu/Portugal
13 August 2016, Festival Bons Sons, Cem Soldos/Portugal
26 May 2016, Teatro Académico Gil Vicente, Coimbra/Portugal
1 May 2016, Auditório de Serralves, Festival DDD Dias da Dança, Porto/Portugal
27 February 2016, Cineteatro Louletano, Loulé/Portugal 
29 October 2015, Dança do Ceará Bienal,  Fortaleza/Brazil
24 October 2015, Centro Cultural de Vila Franca das Naves, Luzlinar, Trancoso/Portugal
3 October 2015, CAESV, Sever do Vouga/Portugal
12 September 2015, Festival Materiais Diversos, Minde/Portugal
28 - 30 August 2015, FILO – Londrina/Brasil International Festival
8 May 2015, Torres Vedras Theatre, Torres Vedras/Portugal
7 - 8 March 2015, Funarte, Brasília/Brasil
6 March 2015, Manga de Vento, Goiânia/Brazil
4 March 2015, Manga de Vento, Goiás/Brazil
1 March 2015, Manga de Vento, Pirenópolis/Brazil
22 November 2014, Festival Contradança/A Moagem, Fundão/Portugal
11 November 2014, Festival Atos de Fala, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil
6 - 7 December 2013, CCB, Lisbon/Portugal
19 October 2013, FIDC/CDCE, Évora/Portugal
Premiere - 12 September 2012, Encontros do DeVIR, DeVIR/CaPA, Faro/Portugal