Trashumancia
Another herd for El Arreciado
In 2017 I participated in the International Wool Symposium on the El Arreciado estate, a big sheep farm in the province of Toledo. My contribution was a new herd for the estate made with freshly shorn wool adorning second-hand jute coffee bags from Africa and Asia.
It’s difficult to translate the word ‘trashumancia’. It means the yearly movement of the cattle (mainly sheep) from the South to the North in summer en vice versa in winter, in search of grassy meadows.
To implement the concept ‘trashumancia’ in this work, the ‘herd’ traveled to various locations in Spain and Portugal.
Trashumancia
In the Lavadero ‘laundry’ del Museo Vostell Malpartida de Caceres.)the following text explains the process of ‘trashumancia’.
The phenomenon of trashumancia has generated a culture which goes far beyond the economy of sheep herding and shearing. It consists of a wide range of traditions in the daily life of the shepherds, their utensils, their cloths and food as well as songs, specific words and arts.
The traveling shepherds facilitate the exchange of ways of life, rituals and customs between the North and the South of Spain, enriching disperse and remote communities.