Many cities here Beaucoup de villes ici
“ A memória, afinal é a sensação do passado… e toda a sensação é uma ilusão.” Fernando Pessoa, in Livro do desassossego
“Memory is no more than the past`s sensation And every sensation is an illusion…” Fernando Pessoa, in Book of Disquiet
To the Witness theme, one of my first thoughts was to present my own testimony about a city, Besançon, in which I’m recently living. It’s the first time I came alone to live outside of my natural country, so I have a “personal visual archive” full of past`s references, like any one else. After understanding my unconscious action, of connecting each frame I made to my references, the idea of splitting in a physical way, the city appeared in my mind. I don’t present the references, because I think they are a little stereotyped to the modern society, so they aren’t so freakish and unique. All pictures, except one, have the format 4:5; to which I altered, because here I felt the picture should be suspend in time, abstaining the modern format 2:3. I choose not to frame people, because I wanted to treat the city`s arquitecture, as object of focus, as a character, with personality. Also, as a foreigner, as a “traveler”, there’s multiple ways to get to know a new place. As I referred before, the way I choose to get to “know” more deeply the culture of Besançon’s people, was to pay special attention to the “fingertips” and steady marks that people left. As usually do human beings, I observed first, and I noticed that the architecture was more pop-up; I felt the hand and soul of Besançon`s people, from the past and nowadays, reflected in their architecture . A city is made by people, for people, so they can live in it, and the way they do it, is physically and spiritualy. The building`s styles, even their details, the way they are arranged, the clean streets , the verdure`s influence, tell us a lot about history , the cultural, and educational level, the way of wealth is shown, and the diversity of people. This project evidence the necessity of recording the particularities I could, mainly recognize.
Fernanda Moreira Amado