This installation by Laetita Morais proposes the simultaneous visualization of contradictory territorial qualities of the region between Cabeço do Pião and Barroca do Zêzere. Documentary reports or daydreams urge us to question the effects of mining exploration on the landscape and the experiences of its inhabitants.
The minerals collected from underground and exposed to light, in the form of inverted hills – the so-called mines or heaps – impose themselves on a landscape, where very little remains pristine.
Esperança Antunes and her companion José Catarino travel the tenuous path that separates the Zêzere river from the ore mines twice a day. Along this path – they say – you either sing, or cry, or retreat into silence. However, nothing is self-evident – ​​the images move in the intrinsic relationship between effect-affect and it is precisely through indeterminacy that this work presents itself.
Remember Michel Serres’ definition of the “third zone”, where neither the Sun nor the Earth are the center. He states that the real center of an orbit is located between the bright sphere and the dark point (1).
Moving matter from the center of the earth to its exterior also seems to influence the trajectory of what surrounds it: Hope declares its intention, the snake sings and the river dies.

The video and audio records were produced by Laetita Morais in August 2019, with the support of Aldeias de Xisto. Documentary reports or daydreams urge us to question the effects of mining exploration on the landscape and the experiences of its inhabitants. The minerals collected from underground and exposed to light, in the form of inverted hills – called mines or heaps – impose themselves on a landscape where there is very little pristine left.