Lisbon 2024 June 29

Hi,

This is my last posting for Lisbon. Thanks for hanging in for the ride.

Today is another day partly filled with lectures. So it isn't a big day and I even forgot to take pictures of the first talk. Clementine Edwards from Australia was the first speaker. She read a beautifully poetic story of the little Matchstick Girl and phosphorous, the white powder that spontaneously ignites in the presence of air. It is what matchsticks were originally made from. Many of the talks and activities on this trip reminded me that stopping to think about the meaning behind a material or a procedure is well worth it. In fact, time moved much slower here because I wasn't racing around like I usually am so I took more time to listen and absorb.

The second speaker was Patricia Domingues. She looks to the earth's geology to explain her artistic process. Specifically, she sees the earth's cracks and fissures as analogous to what she does in her jewelry. She is fascinated by these disturbances. Her jewelry has been about these breaks and the space in between which give rise to new forms. Her jewelry breaks apart and comes together like earth's tectonic plates.

The audience

Patricia on the right and her assistant

Patricia and her assistant

Ben Lignel was the third speaker and he talked about how he exposed his students to experiential procedures. To show us how that kind of teaching worked, Ben put together an exercise for us. See the Table Manners paperwork below.

Ben Lignel

Here is our table

The discussion at the table was about broken things and the process of destruction and renewal. It wound around and around until Nanna Melland said that it was all an attempt to deal with trauma and fear. I thought that was the bottom line to all of it and would have ended it there but no they kept on. As you might guess, it was very deep, profound, and very, very ewey bird. In other words beyond my ability to follow.

Then we had lunch at a nice restaurant down the hill.

After lunch, we went to an old building that is usually empty but was a workable space for this exhibition. The original location was the MUDE museum but that is in the process of being renovated and wasn't ready to be used. The building used was a repository for wood samples which you can see in some of the images.

Here is a description of the themes of the show.

The show looked at how jewelry can be used politically. They used these themes to place pieces in the space - To Care, To Acknowledge (materialities), To Become (oneself), To Empower, To Protest, and To Reimagine (coexistences).

We start here again.

Paul Derrez