Description:
In Várzea de Calde, Portugal, “carqueja” (Pterospartum tridentatum) is a tool for survival: a broom, bedding for livestock and an infusion for many ailments. In Ginestar, Catalonia, “giesta” (in Portuguese) or “ginesta” (in Catalan), the carqueja’s botanical sister, is the national flower, a symbol of resilience and collective identity.
“Carqueja and Giesta” follows these two yellow-flowered plants across two distant rural territories, revealing how the same yellow that blankets both landscapes in spring can signify, at the same time, an anonymous gesture of everyday life and an act of national affirmation. Between invisible labour and collective memory, the audiovisual essay asks how nature becomes language — and how the same botanical colour can mark both what is shared and what differs.
Work co-produced by Binaural Nodar (Viseu Dão Lafões, Portugal) and Sincròniques, with local support from the Calde Parish Council and the Municipality of Viseu, as part of the author’s doctoral research in the Doctoral Programme in Artistic Creation of the University of Aveiro.
Academic support from the University of Aveiro (ID+ Research Center) and the School of Arts and Design, Caldas da Rainha (LiDA Research Center), and co-funding by the Directorate-General for the Arts (Portugal) and the Creative Europe programme, in the context of the Tramontana Network project.