The Portuguese countryside creates a cognitive dissonance. Seen from the outside, from the ‘city dweller’s’ perspective, the countryside seems serene, an immobile space where time drags on in its usual peace. However, history and isolated life in the countryside reveal something very different: a constant impermanence, a high and sometimes tragic state of entropy. This cycle of transformation, far from being chaotic, is the very mechanism of balance, the heart of a self-regulating organism. This coexistence of visions of the countryside is not a rarity; it is proof of our adaptability, of our ability to inhabit incongruities.
Fauxclore is an exploration of this conflict between permanence and change in perception (of the countryside, of our memory, of ourselves) and how this duality feeds a singular depth in an environment that is on the verge of disappearing – of memory and geography. The project arises from an inspiration rooted in my work as an artist, a quest to capture in creation something of this liminal space that is dissolving.
Growing up in a village taught me to listen to the subtle music of the natural environment and to understand how it moulds and reflects us. And my experience as a teacher, over the years and for different ages, has instilled in me a deep respect for the memory of the elderly, in inevitable contrast to the gradual loss of collective cultural memory. Fauxclore is an artistic project that uses electronics, acoustic music, old recordings, objects created and objects yet to be created to explore the places and emotions that formed me and that still echo in who I am today.