Gud Conspiracy is a young design brand that aims to prosper in the world of furniture, but that is not all. The concept came from a joint and personal vision of two friends, Paulo Neves and Alexandre Kumagai in 2010 and intends in the near future become a global design studio, made in Portugal.

How the partnership gud conspiracy does begin?
Paulo Neves: Alexandre and I already knew each other. We were colleagues for some time, did high school together and had a similar college course. We thought it was time to bring our skills and move forward with the project.

However, both of you are working in different companies, why you decided to create a brand for your furniture design?
PN: It was a point in common, I worked in industrial design company, but was not directly connected to the furniture and he, on the other hand, worked at a company that had this know-how and was this interest that led us down this path, although it seems a furniture design company we want to be more in the background, we wish to be a studio with other valences.

You speak of a dialectic in terms of materials, the most traditional versus more modern, lighter versus heavier, it has to do with the fact that they are two different designers with two different visions about the pieces?
PN: We tried to reach that. In the background is apparent that our work is that vision of two people, one perhaps more facing the construction, technical drawing and another oriented towards design. It is born of our language.
What guides you? The doba is inspired by a traditional subject, but there are other more contemporary pieces.
PN: The doba was inspired by a winder that is a tool for winding yarn. We have a concept behind that is we designed with a motto. It can be traditional, as it may not. There is a general idea, we tried to develop a concept and to diversify it, and for example, the muselets are inspired in the cork of a bottle of champagne.

And how you choose the materials?
PN: We have preferences with the materials; we really liked exploring the woods, metals and lately the cork. Our choice is oriented to what we can produce. We'd like to move on plastics, resins, and other materials, but is much more complicated. We tried to use something that allows us to easily produce the piece, because we do not want to see it in 3D only, we want to move on with their achievement and that turns out to have an influence on the choice of materials.

Ivo Reis is a young designer looking through his art to flood the world of bizarre creatures that can be your friends, or not, but they are unique. His illustrations are a kind of stylized cartoons that almost became alive.

Why Amadeus as a nickname? It is by its irreverence?
Ivo Reis: No, I went looking for a new one, as my middle name is Amadeus, found interesting to use it and stayed.

Why you felt the need to use an alias in your work?

IR: I do not know, to be different from Ivo came to me naturally.

You define your graphics as a world of bizarre creatures, some more friendly, others not. Looking for beauty in the ugly?
IR: Basically that's it. I like that my illustrations are detailed, "aggressive", I look through the colors, with pastels tones, thru these softer shades create aggressive creatures, or rather, in the simplest things to try more aggressive traits.

But where you inspire to create this world?
IR: I get my inspiration in the world around me. Much is my imagination, but I have a specific point. I see the work of other illustrators and seek inspiration in every detail.

To define his artwork is like opening a box, we can find everything or nothing depends only of our personal perspective. Manuel Carmo is multifaceted man; he knows no boundaries, no physical or mental limitations. He is the author of a multidimensional work that resonates on different platforms and deepens through the foundation that is named after him.

In your work as an artist there is a clearance of the lines, this process occurred naturally or was the subject of thinking?
Manuel Carmo: Like everything in life we ​​think we dominated the proceedings, but no. Naturally arise, we have the illusion of control, but in reality the control is very little, especially in my artistic point of view, in my plastic work there was a clearance by saying more with less. Actually if you ask me if I'm an artist I'll tell you I like to be considered as an author. I remember that I learned many years ago that we should only speak when we have something to say. So what do I do in my career as an author? If I have something to say I can say it in writing books, or making sculptures, photographs, installations, video and painting. As the years go by, my experience is improving and my own thinking is clearer, or even more complex or simpler depending on the issues. I also feel that the writing that I do the different materials will also may be changing.
The choice of the colors also obeys this precision or not? There has also been an evolution in the palette you use.
MC: I have a few favorite colors, black and white by the dichotomy they represent and for the simplification that implies. Not that I do not like the gray areas, but I think we can work well only those areas if we put ourselves in the black and white. Unfortunately most people put themselves today in gray and it turns out to be nothing and we ended up not understand reality. We can only understand this truth that is far grayer than black and white if we are not in the gray, if we are in gray is harder; we have to be outside to be able to understand.

So consider your work bi-dimensional?
MC: No, nothing bi-dimensional. Human have a great advantage over all other beings, particularly in relation to irrational animals which are those that are closer to us, is that we are smarter because we divide things to understand. The division by two is simpler, is black and white. We cannot see the whole, the totality, we see only a part and it is what makes people speak of bi-dimensions, well I do not know, I prefer to speak of multiple dimensions, which can be only one and that is not confusing to me, or are all our skills and experiences we could see and live with. My work is two-dimensional? No, has no dimension, or has the dimension that at the time I thought it should have, or what people thought when they observed it. I'm not too worried in categorizing my work.
So consider yourself an artist more impulsive or more cerebral? It seems to me that am more cerebral.
MC: I'm very cerebral, but I am a very emotional human being. This is the confusion of my very Cartesian thinking. It is if my very emotional being that raises the artwork.

You set your posture as gestualist why you put yourself in that category?
MC: It means that I let these two forms that are present in me, the cerebral part that abounds and emotional that floods to express them in a gesture, which traces are born without me interfering. In my painting I paint from top to bottom, do not ask me why. It has always been thus, that does not mean it always has to be so, for now it has been this way. The gesturalism is not leaving much to the brain, nor the emotion to interfere in hand, but that they both interfere in this process.

Carla Taveira is divided between two worlds, law and the arts and both are intrinsically linked to her vision as an artist and as a human being. Her paintings seek to deconstruct reality through various materials in order to make them unique.

You developed side by side ​​law and the arts, how does all this is processed?
Carla Taveira: It started as a joke. I always liked painting and developed the hypothesis after having access to paints, the brushes and start painting, then evolved.

Now you dedicated exclusively to the arts?
CT: No, I love what I do in terms of law and it is a passion. The arts are a supplement that has become important from a certain point when people started too really like the works and so I had to start working more.

So how do you define as an artist?
CT: It is difficult to speak in terms of a definition. I have some themes and usually paint what I like, for example, books. Other topics I addressed that I like are my travels.

Thru a graphic journal?
CT: No. I like to draw books and I think it has to do with the legal part and I enjoy traveling so I often take photographs of details of the facades of monuments, and interiors and those are moments that I reflect my painting.

You use various techniques in your work all this is also important?
CT: Yes, because if my paintings I have not raised enough beard I do not like them. I paint, but I have to employ my hands, I mold the material need and use cardboard, wood, plastic, wire everything imaginable. When I finish work is very straight and I have to begin to undo it.

You do a deconstruction of you work is that?
CT: Exactly, and in almost all of my works there this aspect.

Because they cannot be perfect is that?
CT: It has to do with it, if the paintings are very alike the real thing you have photography for that, and you don’t need to portray them. You need to do something different and that's the idea.

It is a visual artist experimentalist, although the genesis of his work is watercolor. Francisco Urban uses different materials adapting it to his paintings, as being complements of a broader view of the world around us. He creates dynamic atmospheres that transform the canvas in three-dimensional processes.

In your work there is a certain recycling of different materials. Since always felt this need to mix concepts?
Francisco Urbano: Not always. I consider myself a watercolorist, because it allows dominate certain rebelliousness in the paint, in the materials. I like working with watery, dripping paint thru the support and try to dominate them with paper, they mix up and give something other than we had expected. That's how I identify the source. Over time I like new things, started using new materials and experiment. My work is very experimentalist; there are others who do it also. I am not alone. I like to use different materials, adhesives, resins, woods and plasters in my work.
Then they are inserted into artistic installations?
FU: No, I work in series. I have a canvas titled "baby tiger" that belongs to a series of 30 works depicting progenitor and babies animals. The difference is that I present it with elements taken from nature. Peel pine, resins in watercolors with drawing. Currently, I am working on the film series, used the posters that serve to promote the movie, the idea behind them is that when the film premieres are the focus of attention on the street and after that suffer the effects of erosion, graffiti, sun, rain, wind and all that darkens it slightly. I decided to revive them and bring them back the spotlight and show has some films that marked me as a cinephile.
What inspires you in your work? Note that there is a great diversity of themes; ideas emerge when walking down the street?
FU: It happens sometimes walking the streets and get some ideas for themes that I like and try to develop them in the fine arts, with such experimentalist work and recycle material. I feel the need to develop materials. The themes are very varied and I test different concepts. I have worked in a more erotic series, with naked; I entitled them of "models" are portraits of models throughout the history of painting. Formerly the models posed for hours for the masters, usually, it all ended in great novels. The techniques were different and they had to be together during days or weeks, so I decided to present the works of the masters with my technique was a series that I really liked to do and I think I'll go back, because is not completed. It is a very interesting work.

Francisco Urbano is a founder of "L’ agenzia di arte" a group of artists who uses the internet as an opening for the global world. An acknowledgment that also materializes through exhibitions in various galleries and renowned spaces nationally and internationally.

How it arises the idea of ​​creating the "L'agenzia di arte"?
Francisco Urbano: Thanks to a group of Italian artists who created a page called "balance and art," which is a very comprehensive site, because it has artist worldwide. I was part of it at the invitation of colleagues and in 2007 I had the idea to create greater interaction with Portuguese and foreign artists hence the "L’ agenzia di arte" which quickly had a fantastic membership. We have over 600 artists from all continents, of which 80% are foreigners, this allows us to bring to Portugal artists from other parts of the world and the Portuguese can take their art through the world, showing it to people to which it would be almost impossible to reach. We took advantage of all the synergies and all this took a very professional character that required a good deal of my time. Right now we have an annual agenda, religiously in September 1st is placed the program for the following year and thus help to get to know the artists and that their works are placed in good locations, nobles even that help them in terms of curriculum

How you select the artists? There is a panel that chooses?
FU: You know, the group was created and is run by artists for artists, I do not like to criticize the work of others, from the moment on they have an artistic career are welcome, if you  like an artist or not depends on the observer. As an artist I have my own language, so others and we have to respect each others' work without the critical eye among us. There is not a selection; provided they have a remarkable career can join. We have some emerging, with them you have to be a little more careful because you need to realize if they want to pursue this career, or if it is just to sell a canvas or two and that is not an artist.

How you scheduled the exhibitions?
FU: In 2012 we started by Barcelona went to Coimbra, currently we are in Madeira and we will be present in Porto, on October 13th, at Casa Abel Salazar. Every year we are careful to choose the galleries, or spaces that strive for quality, which could add something to the careers of artists and we do not show our work in places that do not have this profile.

What are the new features that you have prepared for next year?
FU: Next year we will start an exhibition at gallery Visionarte in Barcelona and will be present in Figueira da Foz, at the 18th international exhibition of Vendas Novas and the House of Culture of Santa Cruz.

The focus from the beginning has always been a site online, why?
FU: Because is a recent tool for everyone, for society in general. It has been utilized in a positive way by either the artists to disseminate their work, either for collectors to know them. It's brutal, fantastic, because it allows us global exposure and we reached all around the world.

The Urban Sketchers (USK) is a collective of anonymous people who gather together to draw outdoors, spaces, on a street or even at home. The idea is to draw on paper everything you see. It's a playful moment that can be shared with friends or family. The idea is to draw without any fear, so anything goes at these events even your imagination.

Who are the urban sketchers (USK)?
Rui Soares: It is a movement that exists internationally. It was created by a Spaniard, Gabriel Campanario in 2007, he is a journalist and conceived this idea, because he is also an illustrator, through the program flick he put pictures and sketches online and later created a blog for the purpose. At this point in almost all countries there is a group of USK.

When the group was created Madeira people soon joined the meetings?
RS: The first meeting was April 3rd, 2011, except that I had already started this hobby in urban sketches of Portugal, I found them over the internet. Mario Linhares and Eduardo Salavisa are two of the initiators of the concept at the national level and then I thought after being accepted, why not do the same here on the island? I always liked to draw in the outdoors, since I was a kid I came to the street with a friend to studies and that was a habit I returned as a student in the fine arts. The concentration of the USK, as a rule, is on a street or in an area where we can draw together.

Do you discuss the drawing?
RS: Here is not much interested in discussing art, the objective is draw for fun, no matter if you are respected artist or not, it is only a moment to share with people who love to draw. It does not matter the result in the end too, because the idea is to do studies, sketches and participate.

How many people participated in the first meeting?
RS: 17 people participated in the last 13 because it was held in August, vacation time for many. The average participation walks around 16 persons, what is interesting is that in every meeting there are always new participants.

"Auoa handmade" is an innovative design concept which recovers some of the more traditional icons of Madeira, transporting them to everyday objects. It is the result of a partnership between the designer Nelson Henriques and the artist Luisa Spinola that retrieves memories of an imaginary that is being extinguished in time, but that is revived with great commitment, love and dedication.

The basis of this project is to apply a more modern design to Madeiran culture icons. How did it all begin?
Nelson Henriques: The project has three years. The idea is to recover our tradition in a more contemporary way. We sought only what was ours, exclusive of the island, including marzipan dolls that were sold in the religious festivities of Madera which fell into disuse because the lady passed away for some time now, although there are some initiatives of people's homes and parish councils to maintain this tradition as it is. We have adapted this concept to other types of materials for magnets, brooches and keyrings.
Luisa Spinola: The project includes not only the ideas that already existed, but we kept the colors, made a formal simplification of form to suit it to an contemporary audience and liked to use that product in day-to-day bases without distorting the essence of this tradition.

But other types of dolls you created?
LS: The doll has a different form of the original. We kept the colors, line and appearance, but is a more contemporary product.
NH: We had to make this simplification because it was impossible to implement the marzipan version, which goes in the oven and changes color after cooking and has a lot of details.

But your work deals with other traditions.
NH: Yes, we also created other collections. In the series of costumes, we have the Maria do Campo and Zé Bruzelo, who is also a simplification of traditional dress, which we see in folklore...

LS: Also the street vendors and flowers. We researched the typical dress and its origin and then from there we tried individually translate all these references in a poetic language of design.
NH: The endemic flowers of Madera are another of the collections that we created, based on the plants and flora of the islands. We have also used a different material and apply this idea to a number of products.
LS: We also have a collection in honor of women. The street vendors who sold their agricultural products in the city, for example, chamomile, the vegetables and the fruits. We identify the dolls with names which have fallen into disuse, Filomena, Lurdinhas, Mariazinha and Bernadette. They carry with them, mainly in the head, the products of the earth. We pay tribute to these women who besides being at home, grow, harvest and still sold the result of that effort. It is an asset, this woman who struggles, the collection is titled poio.

The sacred and the profane is the link between Daniel Melim and Pedro Kogen, for the next exhibition in the Gallery of Prazeres, in Calheta. What unites these two artists? They are both talented young men that are not afraid to experiment, or express their drive in multiple forms. What distinguishes them? The way they view everything that surrounds them. Daniel Melim has an almost naturalistic work that addresses the nature and human beings in a social context. It's a more carnal artist, more physical that transmits thru the drawings his emotions. Pedro Kogen is the reverse of the coin is an artist driven by logic, by meditation, which mirrors a three-dimensional work. He is less impulsive, more neural, more intimate and it shows from a distance literally. A duality to be seen on the 5th of October.

What is the idea behind this exhibition?
Daniel Melim: It is a meeting between the routes of both us. There are two distinct views. I work more in the area of ​​the images in terms of painting and drawing and Pedro Kogen has a more three-dimensional aspect, with a common focus, we draw Pleasures. We designed the nature as well as our concerns, what interests us both, that idea of ​​the sacred and the profane, in a simple and expanded way, not in the religious sense of the term. This will be the guiding thread of the exhibition, we did not have a definite idea from the start, because we came here to do an artist residency with a very open mind and from there we could see what appeared.

Your work reflects nature and its surroundings, whether in painting or drawing. It is in this environment that you feel more at ease?

DM: I work from three-dimensional models, in this case the nature and then redo the images in the studio; I still work them later with my imagination, if you will, through my personal references and much of the comic book universe. The nature, indeed here, in this environment of protected garden from the outside, or whether in the non-guarded beaches where I work, touch me, I felt directly in this places these natural forces such converging, the balance and unbalance of it. I feel life vibrating on those places.

Your artistic universe reflects some of the current Impressionists. The light and shadows are two aspects that concern you?
DM: Yes, in the sense of a proximity to the outside and the studio. I do not like being isolated, supposedly like a genius, creating in a closed cubicle, but in the sense of naturalism, impressionism later in the nineteenth century. Work the impressions from the outside, of such a nature that is not protected, in that sense yes. The light and shadow, textures, fluidity and rigidity, all goes to my work. My interpretation has always these two levels, the work on the street and inside that is more synthetic, more accurate in terms of image. I may develop this strand of clearance from the street, but there's always work within.

The non-guarded beaches what attracted you in this topic?
DM: Because, has this connection to a non mediated nature by the people, meaning there's nobody watching, I am responsible for my steps, I like that idea. The responsibility in today's context is not being watched, it is something that I feed and experience.

Why this whole sequence of drawings is black and white seems there has been a more thorough job than other color drawings?
DM: Because it took longer, are images made by hand. Reflecting the dimension of time, which has nothing to do with the inclusion of color, is related to the minutia one inflicts itself.  Requires meticulous in this case is about textures. There is special attention to the roughness and how the story of this shower, this boat and this cliff is told. It is a single element black over white. As I intend to narrate each roughness very tightly this leads to a kind of extension in time, because I could also have done it in four strokes and I chose not to do so. It is monochromatic, but one feels this profound work.

The fact that you are an islander, of isolation to draw, beings of a sort of island in yourself, have any influence on your work as an artist?
DM: I think it took me a long time to realize the influence of having grown up in Madeira and although I reside in Lisbon for almost 11 years, only the last seven I realized the specific influence of growing here and not elsewhere. The return embarks the riches of the island and this dimension of which you speak, I do not know if it's the moment, but it feel very tightly to my individual presence in the world. As a person leans on a stone, or even on one element has this dimension of the island. If you notice in my painting there is always a single component, for more turbulent and dynamic that it is. This is the idea of ​​the island, but especially the relevance of the vibration of these organic rocks, the cliffs, the stairs that people dig in the mountain, the terraces, this almost constant spring where everything regenerates and I think that this dimension is present on my sketch. On the other hand, I draw on the street, I offer drawings to people who are in recovery, this is the result of a project I have with a friend, a psychologist. There is also the work I did in Ribeira Seca, with Rigo, for a community that has a very different idea of ​​freedom. It has to do with a lack of sense of community in a broader aspect. The island has this excessive isolation of the people and I also speak of me. My work goes in this direction to open myself to the community, being in an island, creates the need to free myself more, to interact with others, to nurture freedom and the sense of shared democracy.

It is a collective reflection on the adverse effects of the fires that ravaged the island in the form of exhibition, in Joao Caetano lane, nº 14 in Funchal. Artists, volunteers and members of the group “Madera in transition" created from burnt objects, art installations and small oasis of plants that are intended not only to stimulate critical thinking, but reconnecting us to the concept of sustainable living and the importance of Green, essential to our existence.

In what context arises reconnection?
Maurilia Cro: It was the convergence of several events that "Madera in transition" has developed. We had already set in July that one of our activities is the cycle of cinema, we saw "gleaner/ gleaner." It's a film that traces the life of people live from garbage, leftovers from the big cities and in the countryside and then we had the fires that ravaged the island. We thought we should go to the ground to clean an entire area and also I had a will to do an installation. Everything fell into place.

So how does it all conjugated?
MC: We started doing the cleaning of houses and the land, we came across the objects, we had a screening of the film scheduled for August 10th, so we started to bring them into this space, we invited the artists, friends and we are working on this project for over twenty-one days.

How emerge the instalations?
MC: From the remnants of the materials of the houses, of the land affected by the fires in Santa Cruz. We worked side by side with the purpose of finding beauty and nobility in these burned objects left after the fires, to promote a 'reconnectation' with nature. Them Trinidad Vieira used ashes to paint these fabric tarps and Andreia Nobrega used this junk to create her instalations. Simultaneously was done a photographic record of the whole process by me,Paulo Coelho and José by Ziberchema.

Not only we see objects around us.
MC: Exactly. We thought it would make some sense to bring the recovery that we are doing. Reconnect arises from the need to reconnect, reconnect nature to others. It is a process that culminated in this exhibition which was very good for everyone. We had difficult times because there were different opinions, you had to manage it all, but it ended up being very good.