WHAT CAN RURAL PLACES TELL EACH OTHER?
Presentation of artistic research between Viseu Dão Lafões (Portugal) and Abruzzo (Italy)

1 March, 9 p.m.

Bar Arjotvene, Penna Sant’Andrea (Abruzzo, Italy)
Author: Luís Costa
Introduction: Gianfranco Spitilli

Between November 2025 and February 2026, Luís Costa, coordinator of Binaural Nodar and PhD researcher in artistic creation, conducted several periods of artistic research in mountain landscapes and communities of the Italian region of Abruzzo, in a co-production between Binaural Nodar, Bambun APS and the Centro Studi Don Nicola Jobbi. This research is also part of the Tramontana network and is co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme.

In the context of the research, Luís Costa explored empirical, sensory and imaginary relationships between rural locations in the Portuguese region of Viseu Dão Lafões and the Italian region of Abruzzo, through a series of four new audiovisual essays that problematise the concept of the ‘third place’.

The third place presents itself as an evocative space that transcends conventional concepts of geography and landscape, offering a liminal ground where meanings are neither fixed nor fully formed. This third place is not only a physical place, but a conceptual threshold, a meeting place where memory, perception and desire converge and diverge. It requires engagement with the figure of the mediator, who proposes a creative latency where the act of imagining develops through a dynamic process of weaving disparate elements into a common transitory fabric.

With this research, carried out in collaboration with two Portuguese research centres: ID+ (University of Aveiro) and LiDA (School of Art and Design, Caldas da Rainha), the nine audiovisual essays included in Luís Costa’s doctoral research have been completed, reflecting various aspects of the relationship established between rural locations, such as popular religiosity, mountain flora, textile crafts, the relationship between humans and animals, irrigation systems, among others.

The supervisory team for Luis Costa’s doctoral research is composed of Prof. Graça Magalhães, Prof. Susana Duarte and Prof. Sérgio Eliseu.

Works to be presented:

The Time of the Eternal Garden

Poggio delle Rose (TE), Italy and Gafanhão (Castro Daire), Portugal

“The Time of the Eternal Garden” is an audiovisual journey through the intimacy of two family vegetable gardens, in Poggio delle Rose, Italy, and Além do Rio, Portugal. The project is a tribute to the farmer as a spontaneous artist who shapes forms, colours and flavours, intertwining tradition and everyday life in a timeless dialogue between landscapes and cultures.

The Animals of Creation

Contrada Li Massimuccë (TE), Italy and Raso (Castro Daire), Portugal

What gestures, paths and words are used in cattle raising in a stable of a small town in the province of Teramo and in extensive outdoor grazing in a small Portuguese village with less than ten inhabitants? The audiovisual work “The Animals of Creation” reflects both on daily habits and on the complex moral discussion about the life and destiny of farm animals and on its inherent dilemmas and contradictions.

Tessitura

Campotosto (AQ), Italy and Várzea de Calde (Viseu), Portugal

“Tessitura” is an audiovisual work that intertwines the art of weaving and artisanal textile production in two rural communities: Campotosto, in Abruzzo, Italy, and Várzea de Calde, in Viseu, Portugal. This artistic journey addresses ancient symbolisms of spinning and weaving, tracing an invisible thread that unites different cultures and eras, through reference to the Moirai of Greek mythology, the deities of destiny who spin, measure and cut the thread of life, emphasising the role of weaving as a metaphor for the human life cycle.

The Night in Common

Penna Sant’Andrea (TE), Italy and Negrelos (São Pedro do Sul), Portugal

“The Night in Common” is an audiovisual project that addresses the traditions and rituals linked to winter chanting in two distant places: Negrelos, São Pedro do Sul, in Portugal, and Penna Sant’Andrea, in Abruzzo, Italy. In the heart of winter, when the nights are coldest and longest, voices become the bearers of ancient rituals. In the songs of Reis and Janeiras in Negrelos, as well as in the itinerant songs dedicated to Saint Anthony in Penna Sant’Andrea, sounds, voices and lights emerge and break the night-time silence and announce some ucoming hope.

Luís Costa would like to express his special thanks to all those who helped or were interviewed in the context of the field research for these four works: Gianfranco Spitilli, Domenico de Teodoro, Assunta Perilli, Augusto Fabri, Valentino Salini, Annunziata Buonasorte, Angelo Pavone, Giovina Canulli, Arlindo Pereira and Cátia Silva.