THE THIRD RIVER
An imaginary journey between distant waters
Audiovisual Installation
By Luís Gomes da Costa
From December 7th, 2025 to January 15th, 2026
Vouzela Municipal Museu (Vouzela, Portugal)
A creation produced by Binaural Nodar in the context of the Tramontana Network project co-financed by the Creative Europe program, with support from the Municipality of Vouzela, the University of Aveiro, through its ID+ research center, ESAD Caldas da Rainha, through the LiDA research center, the Florìda cultural space (Genoa, Italy), and the Amici di Pontecarrega Association (Genoa, Italy).
The audiovisual installation “The Third River: An Imaginary Journey Between Distant Waters” explores the role of artistic research in addressing certain complexities of the current global/local dialectic, focusing on the memory of river contexts in the rural world, in the wake of multidisciplinary artistic research that uses oral tradition, historical and geographical information, soundscapes, and poetic texts about water to reflect on the affective impact of rivers and streams on communities in two distinct regions: the Bisagno Torrent in the province of Genoa (Liguria, Italy) and the Zela River in the Portuguese region of Viseu Dão Lafões.
The artistic research process was carried out in the two territories mentioned above, proposing the concept of “dual site-specificity” to bring together creative responses to two socio-geographical realities in a single artistic project. The resulting installation also seeks to challenge ultra-localist narratives, proposing an “imagination of the bond between places” and also an expression of aspects objectively shared between geographically distant but culturally connected contexts.
Binaural Nodar is a cultural organization supported by the Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth, and Sports | Directorate-General for the Arts.