Weekly Photo Challenge: More Hands
Still on an arty theme, I love the smooth skin on this sculpture’s oversized hands. I vaguely recognise the artist’s style but I’m afraid can’t put a name to this work, which was on display at the Lisbon Art Fair in 2011. If anyone can help me out with the artist’s name, please let me know.
It’s over there!
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For other people’s interpretations of this week’s photo challenge, click here.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands
Gnarled, with impractically long nails and ornate gold jewellery, the hands of ‘Madame Orba’ by Thomas Kuebler are definitely worthy of this week’s photo challenge.
I found this sculpture on a trip to Évora, Portugal, along with many other weird and wonderful things. To find out more about them, you can read my post Évora – Beyond Bones.
‘Madame Orba’ by Thomas Kuebler as seen in Évora, 2010
For more ‘Hands’ photos, check out the links at the Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Together
For this week’s challenge, I found some wonderful examples of togetherness in the photos I took at an outdoor art exhibition in central Portugal. Every year, different artists are invited to display their work in the tiny mountain schist village of Cerdeira, near Lousã. To find out more about last year’s ‘Elementos à Solta / Art in the Wild’ event and how to get there, read my post about it here.
Otherwise, just relax and enjoy the mini slideshow.
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To check out my other Weekly Photo Challenge interpretations, click here.
To see what other people have done with this week’s theme, ‘Together’, follow the links in the comments here.
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Creativity and Festivities in Lisbon
Thanks to the imagination and resourcefulness of local artists, architects and designers, Lisbon has an intriguing array of Christmas decorations to brighten up the festive season, despite a lack of cash.
Having long been a fan of Portuguese street art, I was delighted to see colourful balls of umbrellas mounted on scaffolding as my taxi passed through Praça do Chile. Going back for a closer look, I found the statue of Fernão de Magalhães smothered in blues, purples, yellows, browns and pictures of puppies fluttering in the breeze.
Captivating enough in the daylight, it was only after dark, when these umbrellas become flashing globes of many colours, that I realised they were part of Lisbon’s Christmas decoration project.
With Portugal under enormous financial pressure, the Museum of Fashion and Design launched a competition challenging artists to provide Christmas spirit on the cheap. Seven of the best entries are now illuminating strategic points around the city centre, having saved the council a massive €750,000 on its traditional lighting bill.
By 11.30, there was a steady flow of revellers making their way towards the river and Praça do Comercio. Just before the archway to the square, people stopped to pose for photographs within the snake of red plastic tree-shaped lights, another of the innovative Christmas decorations.
At the waterfront, the crowd gathered in the darkness, eager for midnight. Without a central clock to provide a countdown, premature pops of champagne corks and celebratory cheers began springing up at random until the mass decided it was 2012.
Seconds later, muffled bangs sounded across the river and the firework display began. Sparkling flowers burst into the night sky and bathed the river in a peach and green glow. Other, shorter-lived but spectacular firework displays went off at other points along the river.
Behind me, a group of people sang Happy Birthday in a language I didn’t recognise. The birthday girl blew out her ’30′ candle before a renewed round of hugs and kisses.
Fireworks over, the crowd turned towards the city centre, spreading through the streets like treacle as people went in search of parties or beds.
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An Arty Weekend in Lisbon
You know how sometimes, the thing you’ve been looking forward to proves to be a bit of a let down but it leads to other, better things? Well that’s what happened with the 2011 contemporary art fair in Lisbon last weekend. Don’t get me wrong, it was worth a visit but it didn’t end up being the highlight of my trip.
40 galleries from around Portugal and other countries set up camp for the weekend in the International Fair space at the Park of Nations complex, built for Expo 1998. From the hype, and the €8 ticket, I’d been expecting the exhibition to be bigger but instead found everything crammed into just one pavilion. Not necessarily a problem for those galleries or artists who managed to get an outside wall to themselves but many pieces got overlooked in corridors that were overcrowded with paintings and people.
By the time I visited on Sunday afternoon, many of the better pieces already had ‘sold’ stickers by them. It was no surprise that this detailed reflection of a street through the polished paintwork and rear lights of a parked car by Alexandre Cabrita had been snapped up.
More countrified scenes that appealed to me were of children playing near a stream by Isabel Sabino and a magical forest by Maria Ortega Estepa.
I kept going back to gaze at the shiny blues, reds and browns of Nuno Gil’s creation which reminded me in some way of Hiroshige’s waves and rock formations.
The crafty side of me was inspired by the 3D images made from coloured cardboard hearts. I’m definitely going to have a go at making something similar. However, much as I admire this alternative use for oven gloves, I’ll be keeping mine in the kitchen.
Although the art fair had been the reason for coming to Lisbon, as I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t the best part. Frustratingly, most museums and public art galleries are closed on Mondays in Portugal but now that banks have started putting on exhibitions, there are other options for Monday culture seekers.
The BES bank at Praça Marquês do Pombal is currently displaying ‘Apparitions’, a collection of mainly black and white photographs by Gérard Castello-Lopes, a French-born photographer who spent most of his life in Portugal and died earlier this year. I’d never heard of him before but was enthralled by his work and his use of light, shadows and reflection as well as some incredible action shots and thoughtful pictures of people.
His photo of a boulder surrounded by frothing waves is printed in four or five different sizes to effectively illustrate how “the dimensions of a piece affect the way it is perceived.” I walked past the smaller image without paying it any attention yet the largest one is bold, arresting and dramatic and stopped me in my tracks, making me notice the other, smaller versions and the message on the wall above them.
For both me and my husband, stumbling across this exhibition more than made up for any disappointment about the art fair. Even better, it was free to get in.
As an added bonus, a later stroll down the Avenida Liberdade led us to a collection of stands showcasing the shortlisted advertisements for the forthcoming Eurobest Awards ceremony in Lisbon. Funny, heart-wrenching and downright clever, they were another unexpected treat.
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Street Art in Portugal
Walk around any city for long enough and you’ll start to notice graffiti and Portuguese cities have got their fair share. They’ve also got some pretty talented street artists, some authorised, even encouraged, while others are more clandestine. Here’s a taster of what’s on offer.
Wandering downhill from the Sé in Porto, I found these:
Tomar’s got talent:
Lisbon pays tribute to the ‘Queen of Fado’, Amália Rodrigues:
Around the corner, traditional hearts and flowers:
A mixed bag of apes in the Graça area of Lisbon:
A cheeky fox in Alfama, Lisbon – with a name like mine, it was hard to resist:
And here are some creative ways of brightening up building sites in Lisbon:
And another:
Further down south, Albufeira’s subway has been given an underwater theme:
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Évora – Beyond Bones
“We bones that are here are waiting for yours,” warns the inscription carved into the stone lintel above the entrance to the Chapel of Bones in Évora, Portugal. Undeterred, I cross the threshold and wait for my eyes to adjust to the gloom. Inside the chapel, I am surrounded by evidence of human mortality; every wall and column is crammed with the knobbly ends of femurs interspersed with rows of skulls and lengths of arm bones, all painstakingly arranged into patterns.
Even the vaulted ceilings are studded with rows of craniums and the traditional pictures of podgy cherubs have largely been replaced by paintings of gaunt skulls. I shiver, unsure if it’s because of the chilly air or the macabre decor. Venturing further into the chapel, I spot something dangling from the ceiling. Surely it’s not… but, yes, high above me, an entire dessicated body is hanging from its neck, head flopped forwards onto its collarbone. And there, behind it, hangs a smaller skeleton: a child.
The Franciscan monks who conceived this project certainly knew how to drive a message home. With the aim of provoking visitors into contemplating the transitory nature of human life, they gathered up the bones of over 5000 dead from the town graves and used them to build this chapel next to the church of St. Francis. Five centuries later, the eerie atmosphere provides modern visitors with a grim reminder that despite medical and technological advances, there’s just no escaping death, no matter how rich or important you may be.
It’s a relief to step outside into the sunshine even though it feels like it’s stabbing my eyes. Once they’ve readjusted to the light, it’s time to take a wander through the whitewashed medieval backstreets and be astounded by the range of things that can be made from cork. Who’d have thought you could get a cork umbrella?
The tourist shops do well here from the numerous tour buses that make a point of calling in at Évora. They come because there’s more to this city than a gruesome collection of bones. A surprisingly small but well-preserved Roman temple dating back to the 2nd century AD stands near the 12th century Gothic cathedral and the Évora museum, which is housed in the palace of the former archbishop. This is the place to visit if you’re interested in Flemish and Portuguese religious paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries.
If, like me, you’d rather spend your time looking at more contemporary art, go to the Two Heads Chicken Gallery at Largo de São Miguel. The sculptures on display are often deceptively lifelike, sometimes downright weird and always full of emotion.
For a cheap, organic vegetarian lunch in shady gardens, you could do worse than to try the little place around the corner from the gallery. Look out for a colourful chalkboard on the gates telling you what’s on the menu for the day and be prepared to go inside to order your food.
For something a bit more upmarket while atmospheric in a different way, there are some appealing-looking outdoor restaurants in the pedestrian street running alongside the Silver Water Aqueduct. Walk off lunch by wandering along this medieval waterway and marvelling at the impossibly narrow houses that have been built into its arches.
If you’re not on a coach tour of Portugal that includes a stop at Évora, it’s easy enough to get to from Lisbon; several buses a day make the 131km journey. Évora is well worth an overnight stay and has the whole spectrum of accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets.
For more information, see the tourist information website.
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Sandy Animals in the Algarve
Guitar-playing apes and drunken lizards, a baby panda brushing its teeth and a zebra taking holiday snaps – has the animal world gone crazy? No, it’s ok; these are just a sample of the hundreds of exhibits in the 2011 Fiesa sand sculpture festival in the Algarve. You’d better be quick if you want to see them – they’ll be destroyed in a couple of weeks!
Using 35,000 tons of sand over an area of 15,000 square meters, ProSandArt, a team of international sand sculptors, have created the largest display of sand sculptures in the world. This year, for the first time, visitors were allowed to watch the two-month process, which began in April with transporting and compressing the sand into solid blocks which the artists then carved into shape.
By June, the exhibition was complete and ready for the hoards of summer visitors and will remain open until mid October. At this point, the gates will close and the JCBs will move in to demolish the digestive biscuit-coloured sculptures. Don’t worry if you can’t get here in time; the whole process starts again next spring.
That’s the beauty of having such a temporary medium. Every year there’s a different theme so instead of ticking it off your ‘been there, done that’ list, there’s always a reason to go back. Over the nine years that Fiesa has been running, they’ve done ‘Hollywood, ‘Discoveries’, ‘Wonders of the World’ among others.
The man behind ProSandArt, Alper Alagoz, started making sand sculptures back in the 1990s and has worked hard to establish it as an international and professional art form. As their website explains, sand sculptors are well aware that their works of art have a temporary lifespan and structure. What drives them on is the knowledge that their creations will form unique and lasting memories in their visitors’ minds. That and the fact that there is always a new sculpture waiting to be shaped.
This year, his team have created a thought-provoking ‘Animal Kingdom’ with plenty of ironic role-reversals, such as a human straining to pull a smug-looking donkey on a cart and an ostrich casually observing a man with his head buried in the sand.
There are familiar faces like Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty and characters from well-known tales like Alice in Wonderland and Dracula. Myths, legends and traditions from around the globe are faithfully represented or humorously distorted with explanations in writing to help visitors understand. 
As an incentive to drag yourself away from the Algarve’s beaches during the day, there are free sand sculpting workshops on offer. Not just for kids so feel free to explore your creative side – just don’t forget your sunscreen and a hat!. Or you could just cool off in the café and let the youngsters get on with it while you watch a DVD of the artists in action.
If you don’t want to forgo the sunbathing, visit the exhibition at night when the whole area is transformed with coloured lights that cast bizarre shadows while illuminating intricately carved details. The music gets cranked up and there are dance performances and concerts.
To get the best of both worlds, why not get there an hour before sunset to see the sculptures in daylight? Poke around the craft stalls or have a drink while it gets dark then marvel at the difference the dark makes.
For more information, including driving directions, entry fees and the sculpture process check the Fiesa website or look out for the black and yellow flyers which give you a 10% discount on the entry fee.
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Hi, I'm Julie, a British expat living in central Portugal. I blog about my experiences of living in Portugal and travelling around this diverse and beautiful country. Whether you're thinking about moving to Portugal, looking for some out-of-the-ordinary trips within Portugal or just fancy a spot of armchair travelling, read on and enjoy.
