The exhibition “A carqueja no quotidiano de Várzea de Calde” (Prickly broom in the daily life of Várzea de Calde), part of the Festa da Carqueja (Prickly Broom Festival), was organized by the working group Várzea de Calde — Aldeia de Portugal and curated by Binaural Nodar, in collaboration with the Municipality of Viseu (Viseu Cultura), the Parish Council of Calde, the Cultural and Recreational Association of Várzea de Calde, the Ethnographic Group of Costumes and Songs of Várzea de Calde, the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, the ID+ and LiDA research centers, and the European network Tramontana, with funding from the Creative Europe program.
The exhibition consists of three complementary art installations: a photographic installation by Liliana Silva documenting all the uses of gorse identified in the village of Várzea de Calde; a visual installation by Ana Margarida Ferreira using gorse itself and drawing as expressions of texture and color, as well as the passage of time; and, finally, a sound and video installation by Luís Costa, integrated into his research within the Doctoral Program in Artistic Creation (ID+ and LiDA research centers), which establishes a connection between carqueja and the idea of community (the mountain as a common space) and inter-territorial relations (wild mountain plants as a characteristic of the Iberian landscape).
Ana Margarida Ferreira is a production and multimedia technician at Binaural Nodar — Cultural Association. She has a degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Painting, from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Porto, and a master’s degree in Contemporary Artistic Creation from the University of Aveiro. She has participated in several group exhibitions, namely “Da Sombra” (Ermesinde, Portugal, 2020), “Estado de Emergência” (Viseu, Portugal, 2021), “Entre Tempos e Lugares” (Aveiro, Portugal, 2022), and “Hippocampus” (Vilnius, Lithuania, 2023).
Liliana Silva is natural from Santo António, Funchal (Portugal). In 2014, she completed her degree in Fine Arts, Multimedia Branch, at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. In the same year, she enrolled in a master’s degree in Multimedia Communication, Interactive Multimedia Branch, at the University of Aveiro, which she completed in 2016. Since August 2017, she has been responsible for communication and multimedia at Binaural Nodar, where she has been intensely involved in graphic design, graphic editing, video recording and editing, exhibition design and assembly, among other areas. She made the documentary “À eira: o centeio que resiste em Campia” (2020). “Templo erguido: a história da igreja nova de São Miguel do Mato” (2022), “Rebordinho: Uma aldeia retratada” (2023), and “A valorização dos Baldios de Rebordinho e Malhadouro” (2024).
Luís Costa is a PhD researcher in artistic creation at the University of Aveiro and the School of Arts and Design (Caldas da Rainha). Since 2004, he has worked as a curator and programmer of contemporary artistic practices, as well as a sound and multimedia artist. He is the founder and coordinator of Binaural Nodar since 2006. He is the author/editor of twelve books dedicated to artistic, sound, and media research, as well as rural ethnography. Since 2007, he has been developing an intense activity of sound and audiovisual creation in rural contexts, through which he reflects on the specificities and landscape, social, and cultural changes of places.