Joan Pipa, transhumant shepherd
Vallfogona de Ripollès, 1937

Joan “Pipa” Piella was born in 1937, in the midst of the Civil War, in Vallfogona de Ripollès. At just five years old, he began transhumance with his uncle, and he repeated it every year until his retirement.

The journey went from Port de la Selva to Ogassa: they always left on Saint John's Day and returned on Saint Michael's Day. He spent every summer of his life in the Gran Jaça, alongside his flock and the landscape.

Pipa knows the paths, plants, and animals of the forest like no other, as well as the entire network of shepherds from that era. He is one of those people who carry a whole world within them.

Filmmaker Christophe Farnarier accompanied him on his last transhumance before retirement. From that journey came "El somni" (The Dream), a beautiful film that took Pipa beyond rural life: he appeared on the back cover of La Vanguardia, on Albert Om's show, and even on APM?. On the day of the premiere in Barcelona, he fainted: it was only the second time he had visited the city. The first had been on his honeymoon. The documentary also inspired the show CRUI, by the Orquestra de Músiques d’Arrel de Catalunya.

He himself says he has never taken a day off because he "celebrates every day when he takes his flock of sheep out to graze." Pipa is in love with the life of a shepherd and has needed nothing more to feel like a lucky man.