LandArt '09 | Around yellow mountain

The Chinese are a superstitious people, especially in rural areas. An example is all the symbolism they put on their doors. The two wooden cylinders, representing the eyes, and serve to warn the dragons that there is a sentinel in the house. The small mirror scares spirits away. By looking at their image they get scared and flee. The red strips contain welcome phrases and protect the guests. Throughout the house, this symbolism repeats itself.

Of course, after the artists work is complete, the villagers will give a meaning to each of them. Without doubt, everybody is curios and, in time, willing to know what these are.

In the area of the occult dimension, we can define Sara Yan’s work; which is currently in the photographic record phase.

Her work, entitled "Around Yellow Mountain", rather than a work to be seen, it is a work to be felt. Surrounding this magnificent Yellow Mountain that protects the village, Sara Yan was, through movements in the earth, looking for forms that mirrored energy, as if nature would serve as a mirror of her interior, which in turn reflects what her being sees in Nature.

Sarah gets nervous when someone asks about her work, as she says spoken words are spoken forever, as we humans, are changing day by day. It is a hybrid work, which starts from walking the mountains, choosing the sites, the protagonist movements on the land, the photographic record, etc…

Despite being a photographic record work, it is not a photography work, the whole process is art and also a way of life, because for Sara, making art and living are parallel. The energies are her work’s brushes, energies that express movement as to unite and disassemble, zoom in and out, give and take. She was coming from Lisbon with the idea of exploring this work, because according to the artist, it is important for Chinese culture to leave something that updates traditional Chinese culture concepts.

Sara, although of Chinese origin, felt as a tourist on the early days, but during her stay, she has been identifying and reviewing herself with the local population, gestures, expressions and attitudes. A circle was closed in her history, she returns to the origin, without ever being her origin in the first place.

Sara Yan, a pool of symbols. Her intervention is perhaps the one that covers most the nature’s universe. Perhaps this is why, for most laymen, it is also the most incomprehensible. She risks in

what she does and risks on how it is done.

Tim Madeira starts the sixth part of eight that he proposed to do, and he is preparing to finally bring them to the chosen site.

Vasco Luz, after changing his sculpture due to structural issues, is also at the bottom of the work’s design, afterwards, only the final details and the choice of where to place his piece are missing.

Rui Pinto Gonçalves, already has in motion the construction of his work’s last circle. After a phase that took a little longer, due to the difficulty of the constructive implementation, finally sees in the final at a high gear.

Frederic Coustols, followed the work in the field to collect the current status and progress.

And so began the last week of this artist’s residence...

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