RAIA is 'line-boundary', 'line-path', idiom, and verb form. RAIA is fish. Viola fish is a RAIA.
RAIA is António Bexiga's synthesis-project approaching the viola campaniça*, in its acoustic and electric, analog and digital, traditional
experimental, rehearsed and instantaneous frontiers, solo or in open dialogue with other, visual or performance, art forms.
RAIA is an idiomatic project, of meaning, expression, error, and heart
RAIA is a 'project-verb'.
RAIA is a 10-string 'project-fish' that navigates the seabed and the riverbanks.
RAIA is a kite flying.
The planet Campaniça has the shape of a lying eight, and a long neck.
A sound journey through the latitudes of the viola campaniça, between tradition and experimentation, with mandatory delay on the frontier lines of music, instrument and skin.
* The viola campaniça is one of the Portuguese violas. Campaniça means ‘do campo ', from the countryside but also from the campaniça region (south of Portugal, Alentejo). It usually has 5 double strings (can have 12 strings, 2 of which are triple) and is traditionally used to accompany the typical singing forms of the Alentejo region and also to play traditional ball tunes.
This instrument almost disappeared back at the '80s of the 20th century, the [few] players who resisted at that time were elderly. It was only in the early 1990s that a lot of dissemination actions in the Baixo Alentejo region allowed the training of new players over the years. Nowadays, fortunately, there are already many musicians who play the viola as their one and only instrument.
** Raiano means "from the raia". In this case, raia is the frontier line, so raiano means from this territory between two nations (Portugal and Spain in this case) that creates a particular cultural ecosystem, common on both sides of the border.