Integrated Researcher and artist Vanessa Ribeiro-Rodrigues opens a photographic exhibition and video-installation at Galeria MIRA FORUM (Porto) about the Seed Keepers from Bijagos island (Guinea-Bissau).
“The Seed Keepers” is a transmedia artist project using audio+visual+sensory installation by integrated researcher and artist Vanessa Ribeiro-Rodrigues, at Galeria MIRA FORUM, in Porto, that opened in 15th june. The mais aim is to create a ‘natural’ journey through the narratives of these seed keepers and their sacred forests using media, art and technology. Despite being in another part of the globe, the seed keepers speak of a universal condition that affects us.
Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues, who is also a documentarian and a journalist, spent a month at Bijagos islands to alone shoot, photograph, interview and document the stories of 7 seed keepers, who narrate their time in Creole and Bijagó. In the Urok Islands, the seed keepers are a rare example of sustainable community management and a paradigm of good practice recognized by UNESCO.
This project began in 2022 in Guinea-Bissau as part of a journalistic creation grant awarded by Camões, I. P. and ACEP NGO and will be open to the public until the 27th july. This is a project with a listening approach, in line with Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues’ scientific field of investigation and Ph.D outputs, constructing narratives to the valorization of counternarratives, such as ecofeminism, establishing a dialogue on ecological issues and the practice of ancestral feminine knowledge through cinematographic narrative.
By approaching the stories of these women, Vanessa is crossing aspects related to rural women and agroecology, sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, food security and the fight for good sustainable practices, while also addressing testimonies of female empowerment.
This project has already originated authoral published articles in the Público newspaper (Azul) and a podcast “They care for the future of the earth”. In March 2023, Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues also published an article in the British newspaper The Guardian. In February 2024, Sony Alpha highlighted her work with an interview, once she is a Sony user. In 2025, the feature length documentary “The Bijagós Seed Keepers”, another media from this project, is due to be released. For more information, visit Galeria MIRA FORUM’s social media.