Mined Soil
Director Filipa César
Countries France
Duration 34 min
Synopsis
The film essay Mined Soil takes us on a wandering path to revisit the work of the Guinean agronomist Amílcar Cabral, studying the erosion of soil in the Portuguese Alentejo region at the end of the 40’s through to his engagement as one of the leaders of the African Liberation Movement. This line of thought is intertwined with current documentation on an experimental gold mining site operated by a Canadian company and located in the same Portuguese area once studied by Cabral. The essay explores past and present definitions of soil as a repository of memory, trace, exploitation, crisis, arsenal, treasure and palimpsest. In the exhibition the film essay is presented in a spatial installation where the formal framework is a physical platform citing the shape of one of the many areas licensed for gold mining in Portugal.
The film essay Mined Soil takes us on a wandering path to revisit the work of the Guinean agronomist Amílcar Cabral, studying the erosion of soil in the Portuguese Alentejo region at the end of the 40’s through to his engagement as one of the leaders of the African Liberation Movement. This line of thought is intertwined with current documentation on an experimental gold mining site operated by a Canadian company and located in the same Portuguese area once studied by Cabral. The essay explores past and present definitions of soil as a repository of memory, trace, exploitation, crisis, arsenal, treasure and palimpsest. In the exhibition the film essay is presented in a spatial installation where the formal framework is a physical platform citing the shape of one of the many areas licensed for gold mining in Portugal.