Row away
"[…] Rema que rema, lá em terra falaremos" (“Row, row away, back in land we’ll talk again”).
(“Rema” – a folk song from the Azores)
Right at the beginning of the confinement, in 2020, I came across the song “Rema”, by Brigada Victor Jara. The song has accompanied me ever since and resonates gloomily, repositioning the memory about the disappointments of the present, lulled by the constant view of the Seixal bay in front of my house, busy with sailboats, with watchful eyes on the changing tides and the intensity of the wind.
To live the uncertainty of the moment as someone who floats on their back, unaware of their destination.
Despite being attuned to the stories of the earth, about the earth, in the language it sprouts, the tales and metaphors from these Portuguese parts, marked by navigations, are bathed by the sea, the waters of the unknown and the desire to return to the land.
Row away. Isabelle Catucci. Pottery, earth, grass, paddle found on the beach. 3.00 x 1.40 x 0.35 m. 2020-21. Photo by the author.
Forced course, broken oar
parted course, boat ashore.
Longing for the land is a sorrow of those who are missing a part, some roots spread out aimlessly, nourished by sharing, in the underground links of unseen meanings. It is the feeling of unbelonging.
Human past contained in migrations, refugees from distant lands, realities founded on ill-fated destinations. The paths of displacements driven by unrestrained forces and the caress of the oars on the subjection of the routes.
The ceramic blocks, vases and continents, one compact, the other permeated by grass, are united by the light of the spring equinox, plainly reflected on the floor.
In the gap between the ceramics lies the old oar, object found on the beach, next to the clam and shellfish banks, broken, painted, worn out. The boat-like shape cast by the light across the space in a specific time dismantles moments later, reconfiguring itself as a circle by the late afternoon, on the perpendicular surface of the wall, a shape in reshaping, traveling across meanings.
A boat of light, a vessel of divided land, contained on one side, container on the other, and in between them, the broken impulse of the courses.
