L'Aula al Pati: RIU VIU
On Saturday, November 9, a video will be presented featuring testimonies from elderly residents of Amposta, who recall childhood and youth memories connected to the river.
The project was developed within the framework of **L’Aula al Pati**, a program launched over ten years ago by Lo Pati – Center for Art of the Ebro Lands.
Exploring the social and cultural dimension of human life along the Ebro has been the goal of **Riu Viu**, a community-based artistic project aimed at preserving the oral testimonies of Amposta’s elderly residents who hold direct or indirect memories of events, anecdotes, or traditions related to life by the river. “For centuries, the river has been not only a source of life and biodiversity but also a backbone of human activity. However, since the mid-20th century, urban, occupational, and social changes have led people to live further from the river,” explains Alfred Porres, an Amposta-born artist and project coordinator. The project has been developed as part of **L’Aula al Pati**, a program by Lo Pati Art Center of the Ebro Lands, which since 2012 has aimed to explore the possibilities that contemporary art offers in educational and social contexts.
In recent months, the project team has worked to record interviews with seniors and document a way of life that has nearly disappeared. The process has involved various social organizations: the Amposta Village Neighbors’ Association, **Fem Rogle** (a Social Services initiative by the Amposta City Council), and the working team of **Barris amb Futur**, a Generalitat de Catalunya program aimed at social and urban policy interventions in areas considered especially complex. This community-driven process has resulted in a video recorded by filmmaker Sandra Rosmiller, which will be publicly presented on Saturday, November 9. The event will include a guided visit along the riverfront of the Montsià capital (meeting at Plaça de la Pau at 7:00 p.m.), concluding with the screening at the Sebastià Juan Arbó County Library.
The documentary also includes contributions from Maite Subirats, who provided archival images from her books *Amposta Desapareguda* and *Amposta. Imatges per a la història*, and musicians Joaquín Ascón, Noel Luna, Rampaire, and Sergi Roig, who offered their songs as the audiovisual’s soundtrack. The goal of **L’Aula al Pati** is for this work—currently focused solely on Ampostan testimonies—to serve as a pilot project for expanding to other towns in the Ebro Lands.
