Next Friday, June 26th, we’re going to the river to make reed baskets! We will walk from Bellvitge to the Llobregat to collect reeds and weave our own basket with the artisan Rafi Fernández.
We will meet at 10 am in front of the Hotel Hesperia, in Bellvitge. Bring a knife, gloves, and a cloth, and your lunch to eat together by the river!
The Llobregat riverbed and delta are a natural space really close to the city of L’Hospitalet, although it seems far away given the lack of facilities to access it. Approaching it is, among other things, a way to claim it. On the other hand, the collection of reeds – like that of many other plants – if done with sustainability criteria, not extractivist ones, is beneficial for the river’s own ecosystem by preventing its uncontrolled proliferation.
Collecting reeds in the river and weaving our own basket takes us back to a time and a territory in which objects are produced according to their use value and work is a daily task, intertwined with the sustenance of the physical environment and life, far from the productivism required by the desire for infinite accumulation.
Basketry is also a knowledge associated with the Roma people, a knowledge that, unfortunately, few people, like Rafi, still preserve today.
If you are interested in coming, send an email to hola@lafundicio.net
