ON/OFF
Colourful lights wink at passers-by in Lisbon’s streets and alleyways. With enticing words and artistic features these signs of yesteryear are disappearing by the day, with the onslaught of building works that erase memories and the dust of another time, forever lost.
7th Issue Content
She lived nine human lives, each lasting 110 years. Nigh on a thousand years. Virgil, Ovid and Petronius sang about her. Botticelli and Raphael, among many others, painted her. Michelangelo found space for her on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, alongside two angels and two prophetic books.
Colourful lights wink at passers-by in Lisbon’s streets and alleyways. With enticing words and artistic features these signs of yesteryear are disappearing by the day, with the onslaught of building works that erase memories and the dust of another time, forever lost.
The Tagus River is clad in silver this afternoon, as Lisbon parades past Kukas’s window. She’s no longer the girl she was when she arrived in the Castelo neighbourhood, the capital’s oldest. This is where the local women laid out their dripping clothes on the pavement, while whispering that she must be a tourist.
6th Issue Content
It is a fable, amongst animals. Firstly, the ravens of Lisbon. Legend or fable has it that some ravens plucked the eyes of the Roman executioners who, in the year 304, tortured to death the pious deacon Vincent, of the Saragossa bishopric. Leaving the corpse to the mercy of beasts and birds of prey, an angel protected the body.
Isay Weinfeld’s status as one of the most important and influential names in contemporary Brazilian architecture is indisputable. This is nothing new; those looking for proof can peruse the roll of awards and honours acquired over a career spanning over four and a half decades. His architectural presence around the world reflect his eclecticism, thoroughness and the open and pragmatic way he approaches his projects: “Each case is unique” could well be his motto.
The delicate metal structure still awaits its walls and roof. It consists only of the lines that shape its contours, standing discreetly among the lush green of the farm in Fornelo, northern Portugal. For the moment, it's just a bare skeleton of a Japanese-style tea house to be, where visitors can taste tea made from plants grown next door, not to mention the chance to understand the infinite subtleties of this drink, in a world made up of art and nature.
Terras da Comporta
Art that Surprises
In May 2023, Vanguard Properties installed its first artwork at the site of the Dunas Terras da Comporta project. The piece, which is titled Untitled, was sculpted by José Pedro Croft, one of Portugal's most important contemporary artists. The imposing work was initially created for the 2021 Frieze Sculpture, one of Europe's most important sculpture events. Later acquired by Vanguard Properties, it was set up in the pine forest, next to one of the access roads to the development, where it surprises passers-by.
This venture was the first step towards fulfilling the property developer’s aim to make its Comporta projects into important centres of artistic expression. The objective is to create veritable open-air galleries that will make a positive contribution to both new projects and the region itself.
The objective is to create veritable open-air galleries that will make a positive contribution to both new projects and the region itself.
To represent the Portuguese caravels that once departed for what would later be known as the Americas, Neto used Brazilian materials and symbols.
For the first time, PORTICO will be at ARCO Lisboa 2024 at Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon.
With approximately 160 artworks by Yayoi Kusama ranging from paintings and drawings to sculptures, installations, and archival pieces, this exhibition at the Serralves Foundation which opens on the 27th of March 2024 provides an in-depth exploration of Kusama's evolution.
The new CAM, designed by the architect Kengo Kuma and complemented by the new garden designed by Vladimir Djurovic, will be open to the public from September 2024. For the inauguration of its new building, CAM has invited the Portuguese artist Leonor Antunes to present a new project that will occupy the whole of its main gallery.
5th Issue Content
Such is Portugal: in the heart of the Alentejo countryside, near Montemor-o-Novo, stands a church. Seen from the outside it is unremarkable, a small chapel with nothing to distinguish it (perhaps that is where its charm rests, being discreet and simple, as plain as it is sound).
Cities and destinations are trying to be smarter, which means more efficient, faster, even more perfect for both visitors and residents. Are we on the right track? Or are we fuelling a utopia? And is technology an ally or an invader? Three experts give us their opinion.
In the town of Estremoz, generations of clay artists have been crafting their unique figures since the 17th century, telling a story of devotion, of Man’s relationship with nature and different ways of life. Let them be heard.
With nine programmes under its belt and 900 projects led since its creation, the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès shares knowledge, builds bridges, supports the arts and artists, protects the environment and encourages solidarity worldwide.
Rui Chafes (b. 1966) calls the place where he spends his time reading, drawing, moulding iron, thinking and sometimes writing a sanctuary. It's found in the house where he grew up, by the sea, far from the noise of Lisbon, where he normally resides…
Richard Treger and António Saint Silvestre collect artworks that convey dream worlds and impossible realities. It’s called Art Brut (aka Outsider Art) and it brings together those artists who move on the fringes of society, transforming difficult existences into objects that transmit their most instinctive and primitive side. A remarkable journey into the human mind.
Vanguard sponsors one of the best exhibitions of 2023
The "Gris, Vide, Cris" exhibition established an interesting dialogue between the work of Portuguese artist Rui Chafes and that of the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, one of the 20th century’s most renowned sculptors.
Curated by Helena de Freitas and exhibited at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's main building between May and November, critics from the respected Semanário Expresso and Público newspapers considered the exhibition to be the best and second best of 2023 in Portugal, respectively.
4th Issue Content
Towards the end of the 18th century, the Marquis of Pombal sent naturalists on philosophical expeditions to the New World, where they visited Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and Brazil. These studies were founded on the meticulous drawings of fauna, flora, people, and landscapes made during these trips, 1,200 of which make up a collection of illustrations currently housed at the Museu de História Natural (Natural History Museum)…
Constança Entrudo may be one of Portugal’s most promising fashion designers, but belongs very much to a world she observes with irony, responsibility and enviable freedom. Big on patterns and individuality, she creates collections as fresh and light as a spring breeze.
A century or so ago, a rather seductive substance appeared on the scene. Versatile, cheap and durable, plastic’s potential immortality has made it one of the biggest problems on a highway to climate hell, in the words of António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. We may have a love-hate relationship with the stuff, but can we live without it?
3rd Issue Content
Over the last decade, african architecture has received deserved international attention, much of it focussed on Diébédo Francis Kéré. Originally born in the village of Gando, in Burkina Faso, he trained as an architect at the Technical University of Berlin. In 2022, Kéré received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, becoming the first african architect to do so.
What is knowledge? Where does it come from? How does it sprout and take shape in creativity, in human hands, in time, and flow into objects that whisper, all powerful? I had never seen this invisible thread of knowledge transmission at such close quarters until I found myself lost in conversation and total fascination at Manufactura das Tapeçarias de Portalegre (Portalegre Tapestries).
At ArtWorks, industry meets sculpture, while skilled artisans make artists’ remarkable ideas a reality. Since it started five years ago, ArtWorks has built up a surprising portfolio of artists, such as José Pedro Croft, Cabrita Reis, Fernanda Fragateiro, Grada Kilomba, Julião Sarmento and João Louro, not forgetting a new wave of up-and-coming figures, like Andreia Santana, Sara Bichão, Luisa Jacinto and Diogo da Cruz.
2nd Issue Content
When I explain what I do, who I am, I often say how old the artistic milieu is. It begins in the Paleolithic period, at a time when society was structured very differently to today. There was a tribe that constantly moved from place to place, leaving its mark in the caves and places where it sheltered. Even in such a simple society, there were artists representing the life of their people, something they’ve been doing until now.
Where others see weeds, Alexandre Delmar and Maria Ruivo see edible and curative plants. And so Recoletora was born, a pilot-project that has produced a catalogue of wild plants that grow on wasteland. Alexandre Delmar’s a photographer and videographer, Maria Ruivo’s a graphic designer and creative director.
Kengo Kuma is certainly one of the most recognised and expressive Japanese architects today. His (re)interpretations of traditional Japanese architecture include dynamic surfaces, innovative structures, the use of sustainable materials, an original way of thinking about the relationship between light and space…
1st Issue Content
From cork oak forests to the world, the Portuguese company Sofalca has transformed what was once waste into one of design and architecture’s most exciting materials. Designed by Toni Grilo.
Michael de Brito's paintings are the product of detailed observations of domestic gatherings and scenes experienced and inspired by different types of love.
«I prefer to be connected to our roots, so not to lose the idea of what is ours». In 2015, Chef João Rodrigues felt he needed to better define the identity of the portuguese produce he used in his dishes.