A MORNING WITH THE BLACK CLAY OF RIBOLHOS

Saturday, September 12th
Black Clay Workshop (Former Primary School)
Ribolhos (Castro Daire)

Last Saturday, the event “A Morning with the Black Clay of Ribolhos” took place, beginning with a walk guided by the potter Jorge Ferreira, through some symbolic places in the village that are linked to pottery: where the potters lived, where the soengas (traditional pit firings) were carried out, etc.

After the walk, an audiovisual installation by Luís Costa, coordinator of Binaural Nodar, was presented, entitled “An Asinine Tale”, which imagines the relationship between two donkeys, one from the province of Zamora (Spain) and the other from Ribolhos. This work is part of the author’s research within the Doctoral Program in Artistic Creation at the University of Aveiro, in partnership with two research centers: ID+ (Aveiro) and LiDA (ESAD Caldas da Rainha).

In September 2023, the Black Clay Workshop (Oficina do Barro Negro) was inaugurated in one of the rooms of the former primary school in the village of Ribolhos (Castro Daire), a space for interpreting a craft tradition rooted in this small village, located next to National Road No. 2. This space was curated by Marta Carvalhal, Luís Costa, and Jorge Ferreira, with the close collaboration of two initiatives of the Portuguese Government: the Programa Nacional Saber Fazer and the Plano Nacional das Artes. Since then, the Black Clay Workshop has hosted various activities such as artist residencies, school workshops, walking routes, temporary exhibitions, and book presentations, in a joint effort by the various organizations that program the space.

In the weeks leading up to the event, the resident artist Rita Gomes developed a research project, entitled “Juxtaposition”, on the territory through the encounter between clay and granite, two distinct materials that bring into dialogue that which transforms and that which remains. Starting from small granite rocks collected in the Montemuro mountains, previously part of walls linked to pastoral activity, the artist incorporated them into her creations, allowing the clay to mold itself to the stone and, through fire, both to acquire a new relationship. Each piece explored the tension between fragility and resistance, between the delicacy of matter worked by hand and the raw presence of the mountain landscape, affirming juxtaposition as a form of proximity without fusion, where different materials coexist and reveal new possibilities.

Artistic and technical credits:

A co-production between Binaural Nodar, the Municipality of Castro Daire, through the Municipal Library, and the Union of Civil Parishes of Mamouros, Alva, and Ribolhos.
An event that is part of the activities of the Tramontana Network, a project co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe Program.
Event curation: Luís Costa, Marta Carvalhal, and Jorge Ferreira
Audiovisual installation: Luís Costa
Artistic ceramics installation: Rita Gomes
Photographic documentation and visitor support: Nely Ferreira, Andreia Mota (Binaural Nodar), and the team of the Castro Daire Municipal Library.

Photographs by Liliana Silva and Francesca Migliorin for Binaural Nodar.

Binaural Nodar is a cultural organization supported by the Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth, and Sports | Directorate-General for the Arts.