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Artefact: the minimum gesture and its processes
Fragments/Artefacts of a future archaeology
A piece of clay, ancestral matter, is shaped by the minimum gesture of the body that travels through the territory. The reactivation of paths, draws a line in space as the generator of narratives fragmented by the nature of the place.
The act of walking is an enhancer of an attentive perception on the territory, a process of constant relocation of oneself begins, a bodily imbalance essential to movement.
The steps become a barometer for the production of objects; to these are attached natural elements that cross the path, ductile and rigid organic materials come into contact exposing their physical specificities. The hand shapes, removes, dries, transforms and breaks; this dialogue between gesture, body and matter is explored in repetition along the path - walking produces objects.
A neolithic drift adapted to the contemporary condition of a fragmented landscape, a playful and creative nomadism. Like a forgotten line, the journey is made in search of form and volume, of spatial connections poorly studied, or better intentionally left undefined. It becomes an exercise in recognition of the original place, the line re-adapts itself to the parcelled terrain, swirling along the walled properties and the deep incisions that the roads tear in the earth.
The route marks the ancestral spiritual dimension of the territory of Santo Tirso, which from prehistoric times to the present day is a deeply symbolic place, a border between monastic realms, separation of parishes and in a more remote period a sacred place between hydrographic courses, with a concentration of prehistoric monuments of a spiritual character.
The idea of cycle and process as an integral part of the project becomes essential to perceive the succession of the various moments of the production of the objects. From walking, modeling and firing, the direct and total connection with the place is the core of the project.
The objects resulting from this itinerant action are fired through an ancestral process of ceramic firing on the ground, the direct fire in the pieces transforms the clay into a hard matter with a black chromaticism that reminds them that they belong to the body and landscape from which they were born. The archaeological character of the firing process places the pieces in the plane of the artefact. The fragments are unearthed to become objects of speculation over time and origin. It is catalogued and named in order to be understand.
Artifacts of a future archaeology.
Artefact: minimum gesture and its processes80 pieces of clay fired in the ground according to ancestral processes, 4 books (20x20cm)
International Museum of Sculpture, MIECSanto Tirso, 2019