The emotional centre
A child counts under their breath, in Mirandese, the beating of the sticks — a language most of the country cannot speak — while an older dancer marks the rhythm on their shoulder until the sticks fall with everyone else's.
The sequence
It reads like a book. Each photograph rests on the sound that was happening when it was made: come closer, with the sound on, and listen.
12 photographs
Who receives
Not yet known
I am looking for a child from a young group, female or mixed, followed through the rehearsals until the sticks fall in time with everyone else.
Each chapter follows one child closely, chosen with their family. The thread of the chapter is theirs: the learning, the day of the festival, and the everyday.
What I photograph
The rehearsals, which run all year: several visits to a young group, female or mixed, until the steps, the music and the Mirandese become their own.
Three threads
- 01
The learning
The gesture not yet settled: the first time the body makes the sound, and someone older corrects it.
- 02
The performance
The day the tradition shows itself, and the child stops rehearsing and begins to be seen.
- 03
The everyday
School, the phone, the kitchen — where the tradition lives alongside everything else.
The recordings
What could be heard while the photographs were being made. The still image lives on the sound.
- 01AmbienceThe square where they rehearseNot yet recorded
- 02RhythmThe beating of the sticksNot yet recorded
- 03SongThe bagpipeNot yet recorded
- 04ConversationCounting the beat in MirandeseNot yet recorded
The film
The film is made of living photographs: the camera does not move, and life moves inside it.
The ground
The Mirandese plateau, on the same inland border, where a language is spoken that most of the country cannot speak and that few still teach.
With the families
The children in this archive appear with the permission of their families and their communities, and only once there is trust. They may leave at any time. The photographs always go back home.