Gaelic
‘S e taistealachd a th’ ann an Spiorad an Àite a bheir a-steach bàrdachd, dannsa, film, ceòl is cànan. Còmhradh eadar Èirinn is Alba a’ leantainn air seann shlighean Chaluim Chille.Ann am facan Phádraig Uí Thuama, “dìreach mar a choimhead Calum Cille a-mach is a sgrìobh an saoghal mar a chunnaic e e o chionn 1500 bliadhna, tha sinne cuideachd mar luchd-ealain a bhuineas don na h-eileanan seo ag obair thar chànain, thar chrìochan, thar mhic-mheanmna, a’ co-obrachadh còmhla gus fuasgladh a thoirt air cnuasachadh spiorad an àite.”
English
Spirit of Place is a journey of poetry, dance, film, music and language. A conversation between Ireland and Scotland following on the old routes of Saint Columba.In the words of Pádraig Ó Tuama, “Just as Saint Columba looked out and wrote the world as he saw it 1500 years ago, we too as artists from across these islands working across language, across borders, across imaginations, collaborate together to open up this reflection on spirit of place.”
Gaelic
Chaidh taic Bhòrd na Gàidhlig chumail ris a’ phròiseact seo, tron sgeama ColmCille 1500, a chomharraich beatha is dìleab Chaluim Chille – naomh, neach-poilitigs agus sgrìobhadair a thuilleadh air sin a rinn laoidhean is bàrdachd. Ann an 563 AD, dh’fhalbh Calum Cille o Dhoire ann an Èirinn gu ruige Alba le dusan neach de chuideachd gus an Eaglais Chrìostaidh Cheilteach a stèidheachadh agus coimhearsnachd mhanach ann an Eilean Ìdhe.Chuireadh fiathachadh leis an stiùiriche chruthachail Jean Cameron ro Phádraig Ó Tuama, bàrd is diadhair gus Spiorad an Àite a chumail ro luchd-amhairc le bhith an sàs sa chòmhradh eadar mòran den luchd-ealain is luchd-cruthachail a bha an sàs san t-saothair.
Bidh trì filmichean a’ suidheachadh na h-obrach seo anns na h-àrainnean co-fhillte a tha an dà chuid corporra is spioradail tr ghluasad is dannsa (Navigation), ealain lèirsinneach is bàrdachd (Calling Time / Am Beul Chaluim Chille) agus ceòl (The Edge of the Sea).
B’ e obair ùr a bh’ ann an Calling Time a chaidh a choimiseanadh airson a’ phròiseict seo. Tha an dàn is am film nam freagairtean ri ‘Altus Prosator’, air a chur às leth Chaluim Chille. Bidh sin a’ leantainn traidisean meadhan-aoiseach na Gàidhlig a thaobh bàrdachd sgrìobhte ann an guth an naoimh, a’ beachdachadh air a thilleadh às dèidh dha òraideachadh a’ dhàin mhòir aice san Laideann, air lìonadh le teagamh.
Buidheachas don sgiopa ealanta seo.
English
This project was supported by Bòrd na Gàidhlig for their ColmCille 1500 programme, which celebrated the life and legacy of Columba – a saint, political figure and a writer too of hymns and poetry. In 563 AD, Columba made his way from Derry in Ireland across to Scotland with twelve companions to establish the Celtic Christian Church and monastic community on the island of Iona.Pádraig Ó Tuama , a poet and theologian, was invited by the project’s creative director Jean Cameron to present Spirit of Place and join in conversation with many of the artists and creative practitioners involved in the work.
Three films locate this work in the intertwined realms of the physical and spiritual through movements in dance (Navigation), visual art is poetry (Calling Time / Am Beul Chaluim Chille) and music (The Edge of the Sea).
Calling Time was a new piece of work commissioned for this project. The poem and film are a response to the ‘Altus Prosator’, attributed to Columba. It follows the medieval Gaelic tradition of poems in the voice of the Saint and imagines him retreating after first declaiming his great Latin poem, filled with doubt.
Buidheachas don sgiopa ealanta seo.
Gaelic
Faodaidh sibh an clàr slàn fhaicinn tron cheangal air a chumail ri bàrr na duilleige seo. Fodha, gheibh sibh ceanglaichean don na filmichean fa leth agus còmhraidhean Phádraig leis an luchd-ealain.English
You can watch the full recording in the embedded link at the top of this page. Below, you will find links to the individual films and Pádraig Ó Tuama’s conversations with the artists.02:37 Film: Navigation (Marlene Millar, Sandy Silva, Kate Daly, Lismorahaun Singers)
13:32 Poetry: Aifric Mac Aodha
20:59 Poetry: Eòghan Stewart
29:05 FILM: Am Beul Chaluim Chille / Calling Time (Niall O’Gallagher, Mhàiri Killin, Michael Begg)
46:06 Poetry: Deborah Moffat
48:37 Interview: Calum Martin
55:29 FILM: The Edge of the Sea (Craig Armstrong & Calum Martin)
Reflections of Pádraig Ó Tuama
“As as we think about what it means to be in this continent of Europe, as well as in this westerly part of the continent of Europe, with questions about climate change in our ears, questions too about how to embody the spirit of hospitality that was so esteemed in those ancient poems and hymns and religious systems during a time now when borders seem to be getting more barbed rather than more hospitable. So these are the questions we’re going to hold together speaking with artists together about how a spirit of place can be enlivened by old hymns, old prayers, old stories, old pilgrim roots that can be made refreshed and renewed. We’re in conversations with poets and choreographers, film makers, people who work in multiple languages. People who translate.
We’ll be asking questions about language, as well as the deep motivation behind art and the awareness about what it means to be an artist today on this planet facing this crisis, and thinking about how, given where we work and live, we are in a certain kind of long echo after Saint Columba. To have an authentic cultural identity, I think you need to understand the mysticism of your culture – and by mysticism I don’t mean anything misty even though it rhymes. I mean the absolutely concrete. The stories that people told in the place where you live. The way they understood the seen and the unseen universe. The language they used to speak about the dead and the living, and how people understood ritual, how people understood transition, how people understood community. Bringing people in. Farewelling people. All of these systems of understanding retain knowledge and retain powerful information for us as we seek to be wise in our human community, as well as in our planet.
1500 years ago, Columba made a journey from Derry across to Scotland. He was a prominent and a powerful figure with interests in religion and politics, and within the context of that he wrote poetry that looked at the world, that looked at waves and birds and skies and clouds and cliffs and sea creatures and the land and the night and the morning – what he saw was brought into his understanding about what it meant to be alive. This project, 1500 years after Columba, has been a certain kind of echo of him, walking along with poets and film makers and singers and dancers, writers, choreographers to consider what it is that they see and what it is that they see underneath their seeing – the crises we’re facing. The opportunities we’re facing. Just as Columba looked out and wrote the world as he saw it 1500 years ago, we too as artists from across these islands working across language, across borders, across imaginations, collaborate together to open up this reflection on spirit of place.”