AP Exhibition - The Farmer / The Peasant

#02

In local folklore, linked to a subsistence economy and the complementary use of resources, the figure of the farmer, or peasant, stands out. He is usually dressed in everyday garb, marked by the passage of time and the intensity of his work: a straw hat, a ragged vest, a tobacco handkerchief, a linen shirt and pants, and handmade clogs. 

Depending on the resources available, the farmer lives surrounded by an instrumental diversity of technologies, some more primary, others more elaborate, which guarantee the functional extension of his knowledge and his profits. In this exhibition, there are simple but significant instruments: the sickle, the stem, the cattle pole, the hoe, the pruning shears, the basket, the wine boot.   

This is a poetic synthesis of the farmer from "Entre Douro e Minho", an extensive area of the country dedicated to the production of "vinho verde":

The man from Entre Douro e Minho,. 

Pants of wood and dresses in linen, 

Eats bird's bread,, 

Drinks hanged man's wine 

And is as strong as the devil.

Exhibition AP - introduction

#01

The past, that "dead but inexhaustible time" (Agustina Bessa-Luís, The Sibyl, p. 103)

"Whoever occupies himself with the past risks to pass by without having understood what there was to seek in it" (Peter Sloterdijk (1983), p. 368)

We are an association dedicated to the study and promotion of folkloric contents in the areas of literature, music, dance and popular dress that identify the Minho cultural tradition. Our foundation dates from the school year of 1978/79 and our headquarters are in the School Dr. Francisco Sanches. We assume the cultural values that folklore categorizes as identifying uses and customs, primarily linked to the tradition of agricultural work, to the ways and manners of life based on the autonomy and interdependence of the family unit, and to festive, religious, craft and recreational practices, of community character. 

We dedicate ourselves to cultural animation movements, resuming polyphonic songs of oral tradition, recreational songs and dances, processional songs and chants, manual arts and crafts, typical dress fashions, and we promote the creation of resources for festive celebrations and solidarity. 

The Cultural and Festive Association "Os Sinos da Sé" gladly accepted the challenge launched by A.P. Galeria, based in Rua do Souto in this city of Braga, to organize an exhibition of local folklore identity pieces, in order to satisfy and illustrate the demand for content that meets the tourist movements for knowledge and recreation.

Leituras:

• Abreu, Alberto A. (2010). O traje à Vianesa e a roupa que vestimos. Viana do Castelo: Junta de Freguesia da Meadela.
• Aliança Artesanal, Cunha, Mário Vilhena (2002). Lenços de Namorados escritas de amor. Vila Verde: Aliança Artesanal.
• Bessa-Luís, Agustina (S/d). A Sibila (6ª Edição). Lisboa: Guimarães e Cª Editores.
• Bouça, Rita Maria (Org.) (1991). Como trajava o Povo Português. Lisboa: Edição do INATEL
• Cabral, Elisabeth (Coord.). (S/d). O Ponto de Cruz, a grande encruzilhada do imaginário. Instituto Português de Museus.
• Duarte, Cristina L. 2007(. Trajes Regionais Gosto Popular, Cores e Formas. Clube do Coleccionador dos Correios.
• Durand, Jean-Yves (Org.). (2006). Os “Lenços de Namorados” Frentes e versos de um produto artesanal no tempo da sua certificação. Vila Verde: Câmara Municipal de Vila Verde.
• Fernandes, Conceição, Rodrigues, Teresa (S/d). A Magia do Enxoval – Concelho de Braga (1850-1950). Braga: Artes Gráficas – APPACDM de Braga.
• Fernandes, Isabel Maria (S/d). Bordado de Guimarães – renovar a tradição. Porto: Campo das Letras.
• Fraguas y Fraguas, António (1985). El Traje Gallego. La Coruña: Fundación Pedro Barrié de La Maza.
• Leite, Joaquim Cândido da Mota (1986). Danças Regionais do Minho. Braga: Edição do Grupo Folclórico Dr. Gonçalo Sampaio.
• Lenços de Namorados – Novas Escritas de Amor (2011). Vila Verde: Câmara Municipal de Vila Verde, Diviminho S.A.
• Machado, José Hermínio da Costa (2011). Os Fios e Nós da Moda Velha – Cecília de Melo (1934-2009). Braga: Associação Cultural e Festiva «Os Sinos da Sé».
• Medeiros, Carlos Laranjo (Coord) (1994).  Bordados e Rendas nos Bragais de Entre Douro e Minho. Porto: Programa de Artes e Ofícios Tradicionais, Grupo BFE.
• Pinheiro, Fernando (2011). Grupo Folclórico Dr. Gonçalo Sampaio Um Sonho do Coração. Braga: Grupo Folclórico Dr. Gonçalo Sampaio.
• Ramos, Graça, Pires, Ana (2017). Traje à Vianesa – Viana do Castelo – Caderno de Especificações para Certificação. Viana do Castelo: Câmara Municipal de Viana do castelo.
• Ribas, Tomaz (2004). O Trajo Regional em Portugal. Braga: Difel, INATEL.
• Sloterdijk, Peter (1983). Crítica da Razão Cínica. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água.
• Taxinha, Maria José, Guedes, Natália Correia (1975). O Bordado no Trajo Civil em Portugal. Lisboa: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura
• Turvey, Helena (2001). Ponto de cruz em azul & branco. Círculo de Leitores.
• Teixeira, Madalena Braz (2005). Roteiro Museu Nacional do Traje. Lisboa: Museu Nacional do Traje.
• Viana, Hermenegildo (2021). Trajar – Memórias no Tempo. Viana do castelo: Câmara Municipal de Viana do Castelo.

AP Exhibition - Men's Shirts

 #03

Two shirts worn in ritual or festive situations by the farmer are exhibited. They are distinguished by the choice of fabric, fine linen, and by the embroidery: in one case, executed in white thread, with varied markings of stylized floral motifs in flower-stitch and with the use of sieve stitch; this shirt configuration serves the functional use of wedding garment. In the other case, the embroidery is executed in red and black thread, with simplified geometric motifs and the stylized figuration of a carnation branch, all in cross-stitch.

Both shirts feature the owner's name, midway down the body (defined the "mousetrap" of the shirt), with dates marking the possessor's birth and/or the date the piece was made.

Embroidery occurs almost systematically on the chest, collar or collarbones, shoulders and sleeves of shirts, executed in white thread, in red thread and in black thread and in colored threads, even. Usually these embroideries are to the taste of the embroiderer, but they can follow patterns from markers, cloth with exemplary motifs and lettering, or from cross-stitch collections on the market.

AP Exhibition - Props and Accessories

 #08   

Associated with the typical costumes are several accessories, in this exhibition placed purposely in focus: shawls, handkerchiefs, bags for carrying personal belongings, pocketbooks. 

When wearing a typical garment, it is standard to wear a pocket around the waist, which can vary in size, cut, shape, and decoration, showing or not a small white handkerchief with a pointed tip on the outside; the decoration is done with beads, glass beads, ribbons, and wool embroidery.

The wearing on the waist of a lover's handkerchief or a request handkerchief, testifying the art of embroidery and the will to seduce becomes almost mandatory in the dynamics of a folkloric group. This scarf can also be seen on men's necks, revealing the amorous commitment to the woman possessing it. In this exhibition four examples are presented, in protective and exhibition frames, three of them embroidered in free stitch and another in cross-stitch, in red. The poetics of the handkerchiefs demonstrate the interest of loving communication and the values of property and family, in symbols and marks. The red handkerchief was embroidered by Sílvia Malheiro, an embroiderer of singular scope and exquisite execution details, it belonged to the deceased Cecília de Melo, a member of this Association.

This exhibition presents a Valentine's handkerchief, made in the form of a wall tapestry, projecting it as a form of decorative art. This work was conceived by José Machado and produced by the group's elements.

The whole costume is accompanied, in principle, by a piece of clothing, in this case the wool shawl, suspended from the arm. If there is a long cape, it goes over the back, covering the whole costume.

The use of gold pieces to adorn the neck, chest, and hands is done according to the taste of each owner or trustworthy of others. Ourar is, in folklore, a treatise of personal passion and pride. The economics of ourar is a philosophy of life. It is natural and derives from the sense of saving and making personal and family patrimony, for a woman to own some earrings or rings, to have a gold chain, a piece, a braid, a rack, some pins, some pounds or half pounds, a butterfly, some hearts, some crosses, a reliquary, rings and bracelets... 

But, in this exhibition, the pieces that "imitate" the function of weaving are A. P. GALERIA's resources, and are for sale in the store, and can be purchased.

Presented is a piece produced on a loom, the king's crown, an iconic piece in Minho folklore. It translates the long duration of the royal imaginary and its presence in the material patrimony of many houses and monuments, tablecloths, bedspreads, flags, stones, pictures, etc. This form is often used to embroider it in cross-stitch in the center of a lover's handkerchief, or to embroider it in flower-stitch on the back of a man's vest, or to embroider it in glass beads in the center of a woman's apron.

The slippers can be stitched in white and assume configurations according to the taste of the one who orders them to be made and the one who makes them. Other forms of footwear, namely connected to more functional forms of dress or cotio, occur on both men and women: boots, clogs and clogs, chancas, shoes, slippers.

The hat industry in Braga had a name and unquestionable merits, lasting in the imagination and in certain commercial houses. The decoration of this exhibition, using a creative fantasy around the hats, intends to honor the memories of the industry and the popular sayings related to the hat:

The good head, never lacked a hat.

There are many hats...

Lend me your hat, Antoninho, my love.

AP Exhibition - The Vale d'Este Costume

 #07

This typification of dress projects the imaginary of uses and customs to situations of mixture, reflecting changes and accommodations of taste and market, evoking debates about the influence of urban environments on the experiences of rurality. 

The use or recourse to felt hats, doing justice to the city of Braga as a center of hat making, in a distant past, but always remembered, allows Braga to speak of the variation of two modes of dress, Vale d'Este and Sequeira, two parishes in the urban periphery. The differences are based on curious details of appropriation, significant when adjusted to issues of identity: the shapes of the hat and the decorative trim, in one the flat crown, in another the round crown, in one feathers and pompoms, velvet ribbons hanging to the neck, in another with a small mirror in front; the vests differ in color and the aprons, woven on the loom, vary in color and shape, in the first dominate the vertical stripes, in the second the drawn. 

The diversity of use and the rules of combination do not always respect a pattern, giving way to variation according to the heritage resources.

AP Exhibition - Farmer in traditional dress

 #06

The forms of dress that typify the more functional situations of family and social life, such as going out to go to the sale, or going out to visit relatives, or going out to run errands, or going to mass, or going to the city to feast, lead the woman to take care of image details, covering herself more or less, depending on the situations or places to be frequented.

The most frequent pattern combines a skirt, black or colored, without embroidery or with discreet embroidery, a renovated apron, plain or with a simple ribbon, without embroidery, a shirt or a blouse, the former with simple embroidery, the latter according to the variety of the printed fabric, a handkerchief crossed over the chest, or closing it at the waist, a more showy vest, with much or little embroidery, a handkerchief on the head, tightened in the most varied ways. 

In the local folklore, the greatest variety of dress forms is this type of farm woman's dress, combining personal decorum with showy and daring props or accessories.

AP Exhibition - Slope costume, from a farmer-owner

 #05

This form of costume is taken as a paradigm of a situation of patrimonial well-being, and may reflect in the confection the most demanding criteria of fabric quality, shapes and sizes of cut, accessories composition (buttons, buckles, lace, ribbons, glass beads, gallons). 

Named as "hillside garment", in mountainous areas, by contrast with garments from the valleys or riverside areas, this predominantly black garment is associated with the use of four identifying pieces: on the head, the use of silk scarves or scarves, very disputed and demonstrative of the variety of tastes and resources; on the torso the jacket heavily trimmed with ribbons and embroidery; the waist skirt pleated at the waist, round and lined at the base with velvet fabric and embroidered with glass beads; the apron in fabric, almost covering the front of the skirt, pleated and heavily embroidered with glass beads. The most frequent props or accessories are the amount of gold displayed on the chest, the specially cared for and decorated pocket, the white lacy stocking, and the lacquer slippers. 

This type of garment has become a long-standing tradition in the wedding ritual, earning the name "wedding garment" when made specifically for this act, with the respective accessories and symbols: pocket, laces and gold pieces on the chest, white handkerchief on the head, bouquet of orange blossoms in the hand, long coat of wrapping around the shoulders, umbrella.

AP Exhibition - Farmswoman of "Vale do Cávado", or the "capotilha" costume

#04

This form of dress typifies situations of personal care for functions of social visibility, such as going to mass, going out on Sunday, walking and dating or chatting.... It is known and named by the piece of coat or small cape, the capotilha, whose color identifies the marital status of the wearer, red in case of being single, blue in case of being married.

The shirt with a wide collar, overlapping the hood, embroidered on the arms, the tailcoat, heavily embroidered and trimmed, fastened with a drawstring through the eyelets, the skirt with a velvet bar, rounded, pleated and decorated with ribbons and embroidery in glass beads, the apron woven on the loom, with pullings, white socks, or red and white stripes, and slippers, compose the visible parts of a way of dressing that made a long way towards a local identity and that is intended to remain an "icon" of the city of Braga. Several accessories complete this costume, such as the white head scarf, embroidered, in tulle or linen cambric, the pocket and the lover's handkerchief at the waist, the bag or bag of personal belongings in the hand, the gold on the neck spreading across the chest.