CREBAS

Rumbo á Illa da Creba, Copia tipo C de negativo, enmarcada coa madeira do timón do barco dende o que foi tirada a foto.

Escoito e escoitei moitas historias fascinantes de obxectos traídos polo mar, unhas simpáticas e outras tráxicas. O mar cuberto de laranxas até cambiar de cor, mariñeiros que colleron nas súas redes champaña francés, praias poboadas de capachos multicolores (máis propias dunha instalación que dun fenómeno natural), televisores que ao prendelos estoupaban, mulleres con impresoras na cabeza, como noutrora se levaban as sellas… Pero tamén barcos como o Silva Gouveia, afundido en 1927, que ás veces o mar descobre e tamén outros como el, de grandes dimensións, encaixados en areais aos que o mar normalmente non chega, ou praias con mortos traídos polas correntes e as mareas, sen esquecer as paisaxes apocalípticas do Prestige e da evacuación do Casón.

A dureza do mar e as características físicas da Costa da Morte deron lugar a sucesos sorprendentes. Pero é moito máis sorprendente, sen dúbida, a forma en que son vividos e, sobre todo, na que son relatados posteriormente.

Resulta imposíbel reducir ese mundo a un conxunto de fotografías, polo que esta imaxe non pretende describir as crebas, que é como lles chaman os que andan na súa pescuda pola ribeira, senón suxerir. Un intento por achegarse ao potente imaxinario do mar que existe na Costa da Morte.

Crebas*

I have heard, and still do, a lot of fascinating stories about objects which had been dragged by the sea towards the sore. Some of them are amusing and others are tragic. The sea, covered with oranges till its colour was changed, French champagne trapped into the sailors’ nets, beaches filled with hods (more typical of an installation than of a natural phenomenon). Televisions which ended up exploding when caught; women with printers on their heads , instead of the pails they used to carry long ago… but also, large ships grounded in the sand as far as the sea would not reach, or dead bodies found on the beaches pulled by the streams and tides; or even the apocalyptic landscapes brought about by the Prestige*, or the evacuation of the Casón**.

The harshness of the sea and the physical characteristics of its coast, gave way to surprising events. But what is undoubtedly much more surprising, is the way in which these events have been undergone, and above all, the way in which they have been subsequently told.

It seems almost impossible to shorten this “world” to a bunch of photographs and therefore, these images do not try to describe the “crebas”, which is how they have been named by those who spend their life searching for them by the seashore. They are intended to suggest. An attempt to grasp the powerful imagery of the Costa da Morte***.

*Refers to those items which are oddly found at the beach after being dragged towards the sore by the sea.

*Casón was a Panamanian cargo ship, carrying various toxic chemicals that caught fire off the coast of Galiza in1987. It was subsequently grounded off Cape Fisterra.

**The Prestige was a Liberian-owned oil tanker that on 19 November 2002 sank off the coast of Galiza

**Costa da Morte: The Death Coast, is part of the Galician coast. It received its name because of the considerable amount of shipwrecks along its treacherous rocky shore.

EXPOSICIÓNS:

-Museo do Mar. Vigo 2.020. Mostra dunha treintena de fotografías e un políptico de 70 imaxes de pequenas dimensións. Exposición realizada coa colaboración da Universidade de Vigo.