Early spring I participated at the Independent Art Festival “Desenlata” in Porto, Portugal. “Desenlata (…) is an unauthorized initiative which aims to develop a public art circuit in the southern part of Matosinhos”, said the invite that I got from my friend and Desenlata’s curator @MyNameIsNotSEM. This year the idea was to do paste-up interventions, that were produced by the artists and applied by the festival team.
Matosinhos is an area of Porto with a long history of factories canning fish (‘desenlata’ ~ un-canning), now many of them are in ruins forming a sharp contrast to the luxury buildings being erected in their vicinity. This and the festival’s motto ‘Sea and Horizon’ (reminding me of a sexy slogan used by real estate companies trying to lure new investors into once desolated areas) inspired me to do a piece about gentrification, the “renewal” process that cities around the world face..
A full description about my piece can be found here.
Big thank-you to MyNameisNotSEM for sending me the pictures.
