Mercedes Polo Portillo
Vendange
10 May - 16 May 2021



We retire from the world before it collapses. We escaped from the city, from an uncomfortable and lasting situation, to land on the vineyards of the south of France, turned golden by the light that the Côte d’Azur imprints on the horizon. We were heading towards an ephemeral future job in another country, we convinced ourselves that this was the best of the few possibilities that this static moment gave us.

Young generations are forced to assume a present in which they can apply behavioural alternatives based on the changes that the world is experiencing. The escape to nature, in relation to cities that are relegated to confinement, as well as the scarcity of opportunities, presents new realities.

We never imagined that working in the fields was going to be a true gift. Society is responsible for staining and discrediting a multitude of professions due to the lack of required qualifications, something that represents an impact on the new generations and avoids the development of manual tasks that are still necessary. The idea of a dubious situation in the future encourages society to turn to other forms of life that break with the established and come closer, in some ways, to times in the past where the human being lived in greater harmony with their surroundings.

This idyllic experience is based on humane and dignified working conditions. Working for a small domaine of sustainable production brought with it the denial of the nefarious treatment to which millions of day laborers are subjected in countless parts of the world. It is only under a series of requirements that respect the dignity and quality of life of the worker that the agriculture and harvesting work can be encouraged.

Human movement is generated from bottom to top, from South to North: from Morocco to Spain, from Spain to France or from France to Switzerland. Many have to move from the homeland to seek more favorable conditions.

Waking up every day with the first rays of sun, which turn the sky pink as it rises and warm the surface; to walk, strolling to the vineyards that must be harvested and beginning to cut the beautiful purple clusters that hang, exuberant, from the Bacchic vines; to work hard, under the sun, replenishing energy with sugar from the tender grapes; to end the day and celebrate with a few glasses of harvest wine.

Life is a set of experiences that nurture our path and strengthen our being. Traveling and seeing other places gives us a more generalized view of the world. Spending time in contact with nature sharpens our relationship with the senses, it is an approach to our origins and a development of skills that were disappearing.

We learned that playing is also an adult genre, that navigating our imagination implies a revindication of a fundamental part that the system stains with infantilism. Let’s be worthy of playing every day.

The rest we deserved materialised on a kitchen table full of food. Everything had a more intense flavour, the colours entered into our eyes in such a succulent way that we received that lunch as the best of gifts. Dessert was offered to us by a fig tree in the garden, loaded with delicious purple figs with a magenta heart.

Life in community is on the edge of the abyss, it is being relegated to extinction or to the exclusive practice of small groups. Individualism perpetuates the general behaviour of society, causing fragmentation in the human being, social by nature. The rhythm to which we are subjected overwhelms us and takes us away from the principles that sustain us as a race. Mutual support has been, throughout history, one of the keys to human evolution. Walking away could mean a break with our true identity.

Sharing and giving for the other, every day, represents a completely necessary and rewarding support. It is a simple operation and organization that strengthens the tribe. It generates dynamism in social relationships, helps us feel understood and valued, to love the other unconditionally, it is the engine to get out of crisis situations.

We generate an effervescent creation, we engage with feeling in an intense way, we give ourselves songs of freedom and we align ourselves with the stars every night.

And finally, we created a new tribe. Our collective of creative minds, of love for life, for the other, for the whole.

VIA LA VENDANGE!


Mercedes Polo Portillo is a visual artist and photographer based in Bristol, United Kingdom.

Her work covers interior design, nature and lifestyle. Mercedes also runs a wide variety of projects, like WMN Magazine, on which she is the Art Director. They launched her first issue for the International Women’s Day 2021, on which their main goal is to create a motivational publication in which women from different backgrounds can understand how to fight for their rights.