Lisbon 2024 June 26

Hi,

Oh boy, am I tired. This was a grueling day. But totally amazing.... I keep using that word because it is so appropriate but I could say stunning, surprising, or astonishing. All of them would fit.

We started the day with a long walk to the first location.

We started off with a show called The Other Sun. It was a beautiful space in the side room of a chathdral. As far as I can tell, it deals with the sun in different ways but only sometimes in ways I understand.

In fact, all the shows we visited today took place in cathedrals. Portugal is a very Catholic country and so there are a zillion cathedrals. All the ones we visited had side rooms where exhibitions can occur.

The next place we visited was Fress Musuem, which is a beautiful, and I mean stunning museum of old furniture and objects set up in gorgeous rooms. There were two shows there. One was of jewelry by students from the Brazilian school Algures. Their work was displayed throughout the space. The other was called Power #0000000 and was confined to two spaces.

The student work was a reaction to the military dictatorship in Brazil before the revolution 21 years ago. The students' jewelry tells a strong story about ideas of freedom. Please forgive me for the lack of some names - there were 46 pieces in the show. We were led through the show by one of the creators of the school Nicole Uurbanus. She was knowledgeable and passionate about jewelry and the work of her students.

Rô Boff

Jacque Basso

Nina Lima

Giuliana Mantovi

Barbara Coufal

Ana Moreira

Mirian Zavarelli

Renata Meirelies

Paula Andrade

Esperança Leria

Lo Baggio Alice in Wonderland theme

Andréa Zlatkin

This necklace is the story of a family saga with pieces of fabric from an heirloom and things inside of the pillow from the family history.

Vanessa Rosalino Titled- Break Glass in Case of Emergency

Elaine Namba

Camila Ligabue

Angelo Rubens

Alice Lobato

I only have one image from the Power show since they were all black and in a dark space. There is one piece by each of the 5 participants: Carlos Silva, Jorge Manilla, Jordi Aparicio, Rodrigo, Acosta, and Valentim Quaresma.

Finally, we move on to a new show called Radical Softness which is an exhibition of Estonian artists curated by Tanel Veenre. The idea of the show was based on a radical philosopher's ideas and I couldn't really understand it. But it has something to do with identity and being and existentialism. The Estonians are so deep.......

Nils Hint

Taavi Teevet

Eve Maargus

Maarja Niinemågi

Ketli Tiitsar

Piret Hirv- This weighs a ton surprisingly

Darja Popolitova- Couldn't Sleep So I Touched My Phone

Tanel Veenre- Void of Meaning - He covered parts of the painting that were damaged with jewelry.

The Church where the show took place

After getting lost and a long walk uphill and through passageways and up and down stairs we finally made it to the next show called Chalk and Talk. "The humble chalk and a cheap tent are ingredients for an exploratory journey into the good and bad of today's democracy. "

Catrina Silva- Shelter made of tent material

Herman Hermsen Oh my God Watch your Back. Using convex mirrors

Herman Hermsen

Felieke van der Leest

Timothy Information Limited

Sofia Bjorkman

Mariília Maaria Mira- here is where the chalk comes in

Then we went to Reverso Gallery to see Veronica Fabian's exhibition Hooked on Power Bonds. Many necklaces were hanging from the ceiling. It was very hard to capture how perfect it was with these photographs.