Deborah da Mota: Priary Colors – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Primary Colors is a film and tribute to the people of rural communities. As an immigrant from Canada, I found a kindred spirit in the people of Dão Lafões. Their sense of community, welcomes and warms a burdened heart. It is paralleled by an inner strength that is a beacon of light – like yellow on the artist’s canvas. While their sensible and realistic way of being keeps us in check as a wave pulls you back to shore. All these metaphors are part of the symbolism that make up the film Primary Colors.

I celebrate the theme, Blows in the Doorway, by creating a corridor of communication through the exchange of sound and video retrieved from the association’s archives and my own productions. As if carried by the wind, echoes of a distant land can be heard in an intimate dialogue between me and these rural communities. In particular the women, who have been an inspiration not only in art but in life. A final appreciation is expressed in form of a poem, where if any doubts remain with regard to intentions, they are quickly dismissed.

As the film opens, a hand worked wrought iron gate is seen out of context standing in the sand – backed by the roaring breaking waves; It is the threshold between the intimate and the outside world. A metaphor for my own reality and a tribute to Portuguese craftsmanship, capable of creating intricate, and beautiful objects with such precision.

Oscillating between a sense loneliness and tranquility, the moment is broken by the far away laughter and chatter of the women in the Dão Lafões region, as they harvest their crops used to produced linen. The film cuts to them; we see the women dressed to tradition as they sing the songs of their ancestors. Songs, that set the rhythm of their work.

Abruptly, we enter the intimacy of my studio in Aveiro where I am stretching and priming the canvas; emphasis is given to working hands to highlight the work ethic and old fashion know how exampled by the rural people. Archive files reveal images of nature and its sounds, exposing the viewer to another reality quite different from the sandy seashores of Aveiro. As we listen to water trickling down the creek, I am seen painting in my atelier, joined by the commanding voices of women working. Alone in the atelier their voices incentivize and break the silence, no time for sadness. Without them the silence is deafening. The painting in progress takes form, revealing a vast landscape of hills and rivers inspired by the nature of Viseu Dão Lafões and the home I had left many years ago. The parallel worlds continue with sound and video interchanging the context of the video clip. Close in mind but yet far away, the love of nature and the longing to be together. Mixing of colors reflects the mixing of lives; it is part of nature. Church bells ring to the hymn, Ave Maria, as the women walk their path in nature and in life. While upon their heads they carry hardship with elegance and poise.

It was an honor that I put myself in the same context with people so rich in mind, body and soul.

Vídeo criado no âmbito do projeto „Sopros no Umbral“ de 2021, uma proposta da Binaural Nodar em parceria com o Mestrado de Criação Artística Contemporânea da Universidade de Aveiro que consistiu na ativação artística do Arquivo Digital Binaural Nodar por parte dos alunos do referido mestrado.