The Denison Arts Centre, associated with Denison University in the United States of America will host, until 18 October, an exhibition on the Projecto Entre Serras - Contemporary Art Network Between Agriculture and Biodiversity (PES) Project.
Curated by Carlos Casteleira, the exhibition includes works produced under several initiatives promoted with the support of ADXTUR - Schist Villages Tourism Development Agency, in partnership with the Fundão Council (iNature), which reinforce the role of the Aldeias do Xisto as a living laboratory that promotes innovation and immersion for the creation of experiences and learning.
The "Seeing to Believe, Re-seeing is Creating" photography workshop, which took place from 15 to 20 July in the Aldeia do Xisto da Barroca, is one such initiative. The workshop invited a group of artists and photographers to share their experience of creating images. Led by Rodrigo Braga and Carlos Casteleira, Andrea Inocêncio, Annick Boissel, Bruno Medeiros, Luís Nobre, Manuela Pires da Fonseca, Miguel Geraldes and Umberto Simões explored the region and its natural and mining heritage, between Barroca and Cabeço do Pião.
Through a process that began with observation walks, each participant exercised visual compositions linked to their aesthetic and conceptual interests, but which also pointed to new possibilities, reaching for a less narrative and more open and speculative senses of the image.
This was followed by the artist residences "Ponto Zero", by Rodrigo Braga, and "Tarde Fria", by Laetitia Morais, also focusing on the territory surrounding Panasqueira Mines.
The exhibition also presents photographs by Carlos Casteleira on the "Fireflies" installation by Erik Samakh, an artist who, in 2017, installed small electronic artefacts that simulate fireflies in the Central Region, simultaneously symbolising the resilience of biodiversity and membership of the PES contemporary art network, building an in situ cartography of the territories involved. The present collaboration with Denison University also includes an artist residency by both artists, which will result in a temporary installation of FIREFLIES in Newark, symbolically extending the PES network to the US.
See the attached documents for more details on this exhibition.
It should be noted that PES takes place in the border country of the central Iberian Peninsula and establishes relationships between communities and ecological issues, developing works grounded in life, space and time. Committed to creating a contemporary art network in the aforementioned region, since 2017 PES has been establishing partnerships that allow a new edition to be held each year, having already involved artists and academics from Portugal, Spain, France, Brazil and Ecuador, always with a focus on artistic production linked to surroundings.
