From 4 to 8 September 2015, Binaural/Nodar will host the European Tramontana Forum in the Lafões sub-region (mainly in the municipality of Vouzela, but also in São Pedro do Sul), an event dedicated to reflecting on and disseminating the cultural heritage of rural European areas. This stems from Binaural/Nodar’s involvement, since 2012, in a European innovation network for multimedia archives promoting mountainous rural territories, the Tramontana Network (http://www.re-tramontana.org).
The Tramontana Network is funded by the European Commission’s Creative Europe Programme and includes, besides Binaural/Nodar, six other organisations from Spain (audio-lab.org, in the Basque Country), Italy (La Leggera in the Tuscany region, LEM Italia and Bambun, both in the Abruzzo region) and France (Nosauts de Bigòrra, Numériculture-Gascogne and Eth Ostau Comengés, all in the Midi-Pyrénées region).
In addition, in 2015 Binaural/Nodar launched an integrated cultural programme for the Lafões sub-region (the municipalities of São Pedro do Sul, Vouzela and Oliveira de Frades) called LAFÕES TERRA DE CULTURA (co-funded through a two-year tripartite support agreement with the Directorate-General for the Arts), under which events are held throughout 2015 and 2016 in the fields of performing arts, sound and visual arts, and ethnographic research. All public activities of the European Tramontana Forum are part of VOUZELA ART FEST, taking place in Vouzela on 4 and 5 September 2015, co-organised this year by Binaural/Nodar and the local municipality.
As part of VOUZELA ART FEST, a Tramontana concert series will take place, ranging from rock influenced by Pyrenean oral tradition (Papà Gahús), to sound art stemming from research on Basque Country rivers (Urkor, from Audiolab), to experimental electronic music based on ethnographic field recordings from the Lafões region (Lafões Electro Mix, by Binaural/Nodar), and to roots music from the Italian Abruzzo region (Quartetto Sentimento).
In addition, seven audiovisual works will be shown, as part of the exhibition RE-TRAMONTANA: ECOS E OLHARES (Echoes and Perspectives) and during an outdoor cinema session, all representative of possible aesthetic approaches to cultural material from the territories involved in the Tramontana project: “Elogio della pacienza” by Stefano Saverioni, “Onde nasce o rio da minha aldeia?” by Luís Costa, “Sonar ciudades” by Xabier Iriondo, “Passejada en cap deras gents” by Renaud Lassalle, “A Esposa” by Manuela Barile, “Sons do Rural” by Tiago Dias dos Santos, and “Più colpi delle stele” by Gianfranco Spitilli.
Finally, on Saturday 5 September, the international conference “Rural Heritage and Cultural Innovation” will take place, bringing together researchers and cultural managers from several countries: Luís Costa (Binaural/Nodar, PT), Miguel Torres (ACERT, PT), Perrine Charteau (occitanica.eu, FR), Renaud Lassalle (Eth Ostau Comengés, FR), Gianfranco Spitilli (Bambun, IT) and Xabier Erkizia (audio-lab.org, ES).
Full Tramontana Forum programme (in Portuguese):