light, blaze, fulgor. sílvia das fadas

Under the tile Light, Blaze, Fulgor – Auguries for a Non-Hierarchical Framing and Flourishing, Sílvia das Fadas has been working since 2017 on a constantly expanding 16mm, sound and text performance with multiple projectors, which will see another actualization as part of exf f. The project was sparked by the anarchist António Gonçalves Correia and his communal experiments – first, Comuna da Luz [The Commune of Light], in Vale de Santiago/Odemira (1917-18), followed by Comuna Clarão [The Blaze Commune], in Albarraque / Sintra (1926). Metamorphosing itself in different iterations, this expanded film anticipates a fulgurous de-hierarchization of the act of seeing, while attempting to offer a pedagogy of land and conviviality in the bio-region of Alentejo.

Stubbornly looking at the ruins of a commune we search for auguries. For instance: “Fair weather for drifters.” We wander by foot across times, erratically shooting images and recording sounds through the kaleidoscopic spatiality of Alentejo, a Portuguese region named after a river, beyond a river. As walking offers unexpected encounters and co-presences, missives are sent to and from the margins. For instance: “growing organs for the alternative.” Our senses are partial, precarious and fragmentary, but not our orientation: There is an everyday struggle for the fulgor being fought and we want to be in it. Against a firmament of dispossession of land, bodies and social bonds, we are getting ready. For instance: “On the level!” The fulgor is mobile, the prefigured community dispersed and diverse. Through dissent and associations of affinity, autonomy and reenchantment, the offer of cinema could be to let us flourish in non-hierarchical frames.

( Sílvia das Fadas )

In the presence of Sílvia das Fadas.