MITThe Dean's Gallery
. . .
 
Anne Rearick: Basque Heartland

June 19, 1997 - August 28, 1997

Curated by Michelle Fiorenza



My work as a photographer has centered increasingly on themes of physical, cultural, and spiritual survival. Since receiving a Fulbright fellowship in 1990, I have traveled at least twice a year to live and work in the Basque region of southwest France. While photographing landscapes and faces that reflect the region's ancient beauty and its inhabitants' region spiritual connection to the land, I have developed a powerful relationship with the indigenous Basques who have managed to survive, united and culturally distinct, since prehistory.

In my photographs I bear witness to the rituals of daily village life. St. Jean Pied de Port and its surrounding villages lie in the interior, or heart, of the Basque country. I arrived there for the first time on a tiny train which wound through mountains dotted with white-washed farmhouses. Here in the Basque heartland, many of the old people speak neither French nor Spanish, only Euskara, the Basque language, and they have earned a reputation for being closed and distrustful. My first morning in St. Jean Pied de Port, an elderly woman, with a face that reminded me of my grandmother's invited me to tea. I arrived at her door several days later, soaked with rain; she gave me slippers and hot tea with madeleines.

Madame Hatoig's warmth and generosity have been echoed by many others in the villages in which I have lived. The Basques have welcomed me into their world shepherds, cafe owners, students, postal workers, and farmers. Blessed with their trust and acceptance, I photograph the interior‹the heart of their lives, in their kitchens and barns, with their afternoon glasses of Ricard, their evening walks and embraces. As the world continues inevitably to open, the Basques offer values which are urgently needed, values such as a spiritual connection, community, generosity, respect for tradition, and an acceptance of aging and death as integral parts of the cycle of life. As an artist, my hope is to show the beauty and subtleties of this enduring culture.


Go to the Dean's Gallery home page