Some months ago I posted a few photos of the ruins of a Sanatorium from the beginning of the last century.
The building was never completed, as the owner , a former wealthy entrepreneur, went bankrupt . The remains of the building were remarkably well preserved, no garbage or signs of depredation were visible. The stone walls stood there seemingly indifferent to the passage of time.
Now the bad news: the hundred-year old stone walls were demolished by the current owner, Some sort of hotel will be built there, according to what I know. Another loss… Human actions have more destructive power than the passage of time.
A long street was finally embelished wit a variety of graffiti and mural paintings along its decaying walls. I went there yesterday and took some photos.
The artists were invited by the City Council and they were given total freedom to paint whatever they wanted. This a good way to change an uninteresting (even depressive) street in a sort of public art gallery.
«Filhos do Meio – Hip Hop à Margem» is the new temporary exhibition at the Almada Museum – Casa da Cidade, scheduled to open on October 26th at 3:00 pm, and which will occupy the two floors of the temporary exhibition wing of Casa da Cidade until the end of March 2025.
The exhibition is part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April 1974 and also marks the 30th anniversary of the RAPublica collection, the first compilation of Portuguese rap, released in 1994. It aims to provide an interpretation of the identity of Almada, integrating the cultural movements fostered by the 1974 Revolution, stimulated by the arrival of new populations and their reproduction in the municipality of Almada, highlighting the contribution of the hip hop culture that was founded there and giving expression to geographical and cultural areas of the municipality that are less known to the general public. The guiding theme focuses on the post-25th of April because it is in these youthful dynamics fostered by the younger generations that the creative processes have been constructed over these 50 years, in a permanent exchange with similar territorial realities in spaces that cross Almada and the Costa da Caparica with the municipalities of the Setúbal peninsula and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.
The exhibition includes sections dedicated to the history of hip hop in Portugal and Almada, with links to fashion, breakdancing and pirate radio stations; highlighting expressions such as graffiti and rap in Portuguese, associating them with television media coverage and ending with the current creative situation, framed in an independent record market, streaming and social networks. This exhibition of colour, light and sound presents hip hop as an integral part of youth expression, rooted in the outskirts of the city of Lisbon, inserting it into the national music scene, but, above all, highlighting its uniqueness from Almada, the most local thing that these “middle children” have brought to the national music scene since then.
At the same time, Casa da Cidade will host a complementary programme, one Saturday a month, where music, dance and graffiti will be the main starting points for conversations and workshops dedicated to the central theme of this exhibition….”
I visited the opening session yesterday, some snapshots below
An exhibition of photographs by Daniel Blaufuks at the Museum of Architecture Art and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon. I selected two of many photos exposed. A few hundreds of small instax photos, isolated or paired, with hand-written, printed or glued captions.
From the introductory text by João Pinharanda :
“We created time and immediately felt hemmed in and devoured by it. Memory is a betrayal of time. We have always tried, without success, to escape it, to negate its erosive influence – a Sisyphean task in which Blaufuks, who exposes to the world the weight of the myriad epochs and memories (family, personal, historical, political, cultural, …) he carries, participates.
An exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the April Revolution and the end of the colonial wars in Africa. Seven artists created images on very large semi-transparent canvases, installed in the abandoned buildings of the largest ship repair industry in the Lisbon area.
There is visible light from the roof windows coming in through the canvases.
My long-time friend João Spratley is an excellent writer. He wrote a series of short texts in the form of traditional Fables, and asked me to illustrate them. This resulted in a short book, in French, that was published in 2021 (“Le Sourire du Chat et autres historiettes”). In the same line, we have just published a second (and last) book of Fables, also written in French (“Le Dernier sourire du Chat”), and also illustrated by me. I created a page Books im my main menu joaoavelarnet.org/books/ where you can find more details
My submitted six photos were accepted for the exhibition currently taking place. The subject was “Freedom”. Here they are
Two groups of friends, with a peaceful river or a flying bicycle
A boy trying to run from his family – and to escape from the limits of the photo
An open space to breathe – or simply to contemplate
And the “Shtandart” a modern replica of an ancient Russian vessel. I was told that she is forbidden to return to St Petersburg, from where she left years ago. She is sailing around the world, teaching nautical and sailing crafts to young people. Forced freedom, to some extent, not being allowed to return home…
The ADAO (Associaton for the Development of Arts and Crafts) will organize another Analog Photography Festival next week-end. Some of my photos were accepted for the exhibition, I will post them next week
Some images from the opening of the photograpy exhibition at Barak Kultury, in Poznan, Poland, last January 12th. Photos from Tomasz Bednarkiewicz and from myself.
João Avelar images 