Exhibition.06

Who Are We Here - In transit

"Everybody is scattered, some went one way, others went somewhere else ... from Australia to France, America, the United States, Andorra, Switzerland ...folks just went everywhere. We all attended the same school together, most of these people have studied with me and then, after turning 18, 17, 16 years-old, each one went about their lives. Some went this way, others that way.”

The strong immigration of people from the municipality of Melgaço in the second half of the twentieth century has left permanent marks. Those who stayed or that have come back compel us to rethink what we mean and understand by local culture, or belonging to a land. Here, the local and the global are confused, since it is very difficult to find someone whose sense of identity and belonging is not in one way or another related to people and places that are far away.

The stories of each person are therefore stories in transit, between different localities and languages. In Melgaço, the local is also cosmopolitan: neither being from here means being here, nor being here implies staying here. If any permanence can be deciphered in the heirs of these migratory movements, it is found in this state of belonging shared between different lands. Being "from these" villages is also to be constantly looking out.

The people, who remain, have to live with this presence-absence. "Their" loved ones scatter, across the country and around the world. Some return, regularly, to reaffirm their place; others lose themselves, finding new lands and identifications. Conversely, those who are here also visit "their" relatives, taking with them the boundaries of the village. Moving identities, conveyed in friendship and family relationships, overflowing the limits of conventional geography and challenging watertight cultural patterns.

The exhibition WHO ARE WE HERE - in transit intends to reflect this deconstruction of borders and identities. It is the result of the collection of personal photographs amongst inhabitants of the Union of Parishes of Parada do Monte and Cubalhão. From this collection, about 60 photographs were chosen between the old (1950's) and the recent, allowing for a trip between here and there, the traditional and the innovative, yesterday and today.

Daniel Maciel

• Date: 28 July / 15 October 2019
• Location: Sede da Junta da União das Freguesias de Parada do Monte e Cubalhão . Estrada da Sede da Junta nº 70 . 4960-300 Parada do Monte . GPS: 42.041408, -8.265182