Individual Residencies
2022 | Bruna Gomes
ETYMOLOGY
after Safia Elhillo
fact: the Portuguese surname oliveira translates to olive tree
fact: the olive tree is the most praised tree in Greece
if a Portuguese surname upholds a Greek symbol
will the Portuguese man
know his heart as a leaf of peace and offer it to the world
or
become a stranger to the foreign branch lodged in his chest
As a writer who digs up cultural and emotional history to plant it with new seeds, this residency was an opportunity to discover and understand how history interacts with its community and environment.
In Collemacchia’s historically rich area, I wrote a suite of short stories layered with distant memories and immediate emotions, focusing on juxtapositions within ‘foreign’ perceptions of Collemacchia’s heritage.
I aimed to craft a museum of memory; a textual exhibit both external and internal, an emotional timeline that is reflected in architecture, nature, food, and people.