Description:
“Channels of Water and Food” brings into dialogue the territory of the Agro Pontino, in the Lazio region of Italy, and Sequeiros, a village in the Gralheira massif, in the municipality of São Pedro do Sul, Portugal, in an artistic reflection on the different ways water is managed in agricultural settings and on the historical, anthropological and ecological dynamics attached to each of them.
In the Agro Pontino, the large infrastructure of canals and dams built during the Italian Fascist period turned one of Europe’s largest wetlands into mechanised farmland, in a model of large estates, large-scale production and heavy technological intervention. In the Gralheira massif, water is distributed through a community system: local families hold irrigation rights allotted by the hour, and small channels of earth or stone carry the water by gravity from the springs to the meadows and the maize fields.
Through the languages of sound art, experimental video and poetic narration, the audiovisual essay offers a parallel way of looking at and listening to these two water logics, and asks how water can shape the social structure of a territory.
Work co-produced by Binaural Nodar (Viseu Dão Lafões, Portugal) and Eco Museo dell’Agro Pontino (Lazio, Italy), developed in the context of an artistic residency held in the Agro Pontino between 26 February and 10 March 2025, 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.