3'  Portuguese Brazil

Report
In November 2009 I made an artistic residency at the Saline Royale d'Arc et Senans, along with Carolina Bonfim, from the Corrosivo Coletivo. At that time, the starting point was to make a video based on the memory of the city of Arc et Senans, the official stories collected through the bibliographical reference of the Saline Royale, along with the stories [...]

Report
In November 2009 I made an artistic residency at the Saline Royale d'Arc et Senans, along with Carolina Bonfim, from the Corrosivo Coletivo. At that time, the starting point was to make a video based on the memory of the city of Arc et Senans, the official stories collected through the bibliographical reference of the Saline Royale, along with the stories collected through audio and video testimonies of the city's residents and former local workers. While in Saline, we came across a city that seemed to be static. People did not seem to move. A city of salt, made to treat and work the salt. With the absence of human contact, salt then became our main theme and inspired us to think of an imaginary that existed around its meaning, from the material meaning to the most mystical one. The architecture of the Saline Royale, planned by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, inspired us to navigate in this utopian city called Chaux, we’re taken by a playful and fantastic universe.

Ten years have passed since this residence and the desire to return and reconnect the memory of the past with the present became quite strong in my journey, so I came back with the idea of revisiting the place and grub my "memories of salt". The project "Aller / Retour" proposed a video-installation revisiting the material filmed 10 years ago and the creation of new material in contrast to the former images.

During the first week, I was reconnecting myself with past memories, remembering the places I went and in which I shared experiences with Carolina, the other artist. I saw myself lonely redoing paths in a search of history. The summer season brought to me other connections: the gardens, the smell of flowers, birds being born, and so on. The city was not so quiet and cold anymore, there were people on the streets, picnic in the gardens of Saline Royale and I could share more with other people.

On the second week, I came across the ruins of the immaterial. There were some stories of this place that I did not realize the first time I went there. In this place, there is a preserved construction and there are some traces of XVIII century King's salt industry; but then, I realized that there are experiences in this place that we don't see: there are the memories of a battlefield; the memories of a Nazi camp that interned gypsies, the memories of German prisoners, the memories of people who lived here...

Behind walls and the gardens of this beautiful museum, the exercise of seeking traces of gloomy times became, for me, an act of understanding other points of view about this place.

Between the second and third week, outside from Saline Royale, a group of gypsies settled there. I tried some contact and made some images with the kids from there.

https://www.accr-europe.org/en/les-residences/les-residents/odyssee/thais-de-almeida-prado


shorter report
In 2009, I had an artistic residency at Saline Royale d'Arc et Senans, exploring the memory of the city. Ten years later, I revisited the place, creating a video-installation blending old and new footage. The city had changed, bustling with life and stories hidden within ruins. It became an act of understanding different perspectives. I also connected with a group of gypsies outside the Saline. Experience the journey: https://www.accr-europe.org/en/les-residences/les-residents/odyssee/thais-de-almeida-prado

Catégorie:  Documentaire  Fantastique  Experimental 

Genre:  Art  Autre  Video Art