Dolors project: art-based polyethnography evoking contemporary rural mothering through photography, dance and chapbooks

Abstract

This collaborative ethnography details the Dolors project, a transdisciplinary exploration that evokes rural mothering in Copons, Catalonia, through an immersive photographic process. The project culminated in an exhibition at an international festival, presenting a medley of family portraits, field notes, personal narratives and scenic elements. Central to the exhibition were eight chosen portraits of local mothers, paying tribute to Dolors Farrés, a revered ‘meta-mother’ figure in the community, whose wider social and metaphorical significance was progressively uncovered by the four co-authors. The exhibition's opening day featured an interpretive dance, transforming the photographic experience into a multimodal exploration. Post-exhibition, the visitor responses collected in chapbooks were transformed into a large-format photography book, and served as qualitative data for this study. Our creative, multi-voiced and evocative approach to ethnography seeks to shed light on a rich array of individual and collective perspectives around mothering within a rural setting.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For more information, see https://www.inloft.cat/ (in Catalan).

2 A recorded video of the exhibition opening can be found at https://youtu.be/I8vz2_oOXZo.

3 The sum total of 45 entries in the chapbooks, stemming from 27 exhibit respondents (primarily anonymous), can be accessed in our open dataset at https://osf.io/7fjv3/files/osfstorage. This dataset features scanned images of the entries and their transcriptions (in Catalan and Spanish).

4 A PDF version of the book (in Catalan) can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24851352.v1.

Additional information

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The four authors received financial support from Institut Català de les Dones (Generalitat de Catalunya). Enric Senabre Hidalgo received financial support from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya postdoctoral fellowship for the authorship and publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Eva Carreras

Eva Carreras is a professor, dancer and choreographer of Oriental Dance and yoga teacher.

Ricard Espelt

Ricard Espelt is an activist and interdisciplinary action researcher located at the crossroads between culture, art and socio-economic transformation.

Iris Muñoz

Iris Muñoz is a scenographic creative director and professional photographer specialised in maternity and family, birth and immediate post-partum photography.

Enric Senabre Hidalgo

Enric Senabre Hidalgo is a sociologist and open knowledge advocate working in co-creation methodologies with a focus on science and technology studies.