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Requiem à Floresta Portuguesa - Premiere
10 / 3 / 2019, Sá de Miranda Theatre, Viana do Castelo (Portugal)
conductor: David Wyn Lloyd
orchestra: mainly members of Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música
choir: mainly members of Coro Casa da Música
libretto: David Zábranský
camera: Richard Tomes

HOME IS THE PLACE WHERE FIRE BURNS

/audiovisual project about forest fires in Portugal/

Portugal is going through the greatest ecological crisis in its history. Estimates indicate that just in 2017 around a sixth of its forest area was burnt. These wildfires were also the deadliest ever, with over a hundred victims. The causes are mainly criminal. This problem is not a past disaster, or an exceptional catastrophe. It is steady growing trend in fires and yearly forest destruction area since the mid 1980’s. Long term solutions are not implemented, prevention is not effective, sustainable endogenous territorial planning and ecological ordinance is not in motion.

Portugal has seen a great increase in eucalyptus monoculture expansion. This exotic species is damaging to the forest ecosystem in addition to being easily flammable (almost all large scale wildfires develop in eucalyptus forests). Currently their extent is 26% of all forest area. To solve the wildfire problem in Portugal, providing information and stopping passivity is essential.

The author of this project Home Is the Place Where Fire Burns is Martina Vídenová (*1985, Prague), Czech film music composer and musicologist with a connection to Portugal, a country she considers her second home. Martina seeks to raise awareness about the devastating fires in Portuguese forests through her artistic expression (music and photography). Native Portuguese forests have been dying and we can´t ignore it. Affected by the disastrous situation, and having taken live-fire and post-fire photos, mainly in the summer of 2017 in diverse areas of the country, with an artistic perspective instead of a “sensationalist press type” approach, she felt a need to start working on the composition “Requiem for Portuguese Forests” (a Requiem is a Mass for the dead usually played in the context of a funeral). After the great human loss in 2017, the composition is also dedicated to the victims and their families.

requiemforforests.com

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