Last week, Do Picho, in the A Ulloa region (Lugo), became a base camp and blank canvas for a collaborative and shared work process. It was an exercise in approaching the subject from diverse artistic languages, but also from perspectives accustomed, to some extent, to being situated far from major cities, in towns and ways of life more or less integrated into rural life. The working group consisted of twelve artists and cultural agents from two regions, A Ulloa and Lizarraldea, located in Galicia and Navarre, respectively. 

The current economic model results in land (el territorio) being constantly treated as a source of natural resources at a macroeconomic level, rather than as what it truly is: an essential ecosystem for ecological sustainability and possessing its own economic sovereignty. At the same time, there are other ways to recognize this, from a cultural perspective and through narratives that are coherent with the multiple ecosystems that give it meaning.

This recognition can be expressed physically, through contact with the land, but also abstractly and emotionally. Inhabiting a landscape is sometimes complex; it requires a special connection, or a reconnection, with a part of it that we don’t see in its external form. This new connection enables the landscape to also be a territory for coexistence, beyond the aesthetic and the individual.

Iñaki Rifaterra