The gallery of Mouraria now has a small exhibition of design objects created by various artists from Madera. A concept which aims to encourage the purchase of utilities artifacts with an artistic touch for embellishing your everyday life.

The theme of this exhibition is utility, which is the reason behind this?
Trinidade Vieira: Is an idea I had for over a year. I have no commercial spirit and months went by and thought there might be a solution for this. The gallery of Mouraria would be ideal, as is a large space and has another smaller room, I thought they might find this idea interesting and they did. I approached him last year in December and in January he told me he liked it and we decided to launch the concept.

What is the idea that you want to develop through this event?
TV: Is to create a space that we call design shop, a bit of  those we see in major galleries or museums where there is a merchandising store after a visit in which people come and buy a poster, a keychain, whatever they like.

I noticed you did a few bags with prints of the banana?
TV: Yes, but it already had them for two to three years. There are parts of my creations in these last five years

Door 33 has developed a remarkable work over 23 years of its existence, with the aim of publicizing the Madera artists to the world and promoting the exchange of cultural movements from the outside to the inner island. A huge committeeman that culminated with their presence at ARCO in Madrid and that despite all difficulties will continue to foster its cultural activities in Madeira.

What was the artistic reality of the island when the door 33 was created and appears under what circumstances?
Mauricio Pestana Reis: I think it was much more unconditional. That is, had not yet entered a practice that was not common of an art school to train people in various degrees. This in the artistic environment.
Cecilia Vieira de Freitas: In the 50 there was a school, but not positive spaces in this regard.
MPR: There were no so many students as there is today and as many degrees as currently exist in Madeira. People put on the sidelines an official learning, the university. There was an experimental side and intrinsic knowledge that led people to try to broaden their horizons for themselves. This was the reality of the group of the door 33. For 23 years, this concern was not simply academic, a need was felt by people to experience things, seeing and knowing one aspect of reality that is the culture, in this case, the fine arts. On the other hand, there were no commercial galleries, they appeared in the next decade and to date they remains with some interruptions, but there is already a habit which is an institution of this kind and that it represents. There is the museum of contemporary art of Funchal. The positions taken with some merit were done randomly by one or another person and in disparate spaces. Among them, the Municipal Theater of Funchal which had some importance, the Sacred Art Museum and a few halls of Madera hotels. There was not a thread that could show the public and discuss matters with assiduousness what is this part of contemporary culture that is given to see through the works of great artists. It was this need to open the horizons, which took six people to start the door 33. These were the reasons that led us to create this project with a systematic root, working closely with artists. Since we opened we offer visits to Madera, not only to help build exhibits, as well as to discuss and express their views about their own work. This invitation was not only extended to artists, as the theorists who think about the work of artists with whom they worked. We thought it was a way to actually make it more accessible to an audience that away from big cities, because of our peripheral condition, the artistic practices that were not available. We bring these centralities the Autonomous Region of Madera. This work was done, because we brought up here journalists from national and international media, who portrayed and gave due prominence to the work of the door 33.

João Onofre is one of the foremost exponents of conceptual art in Portugal. A career of 14 years of artistic creations that has been rightly highlighted in the world of international contemporary art. Present in many museums and collections around the world, this artist continues to develop what he calls a documentary expanded recently presented a workshop in the gallery door 33.

When you approach your work you speak of expanded documentaries, why do you use this terminology?
João Onofre: For my work, my videos are not documentaries in the traditional sense. Are expanded because there is narrative I would say it's more conceptual art than documentaries as we know them in the movies.

Do you note certain mistrust in the artistic work about the work you develop?
JO: I do not think so, work in film and video are present in collections of museums and cultural centers, in private collections, I assume that already exist in the art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are well rooted.

Your work is associated with the conceptual art movement of the 60s. Do you review in this kind of comments? The artists of this time period influence you in what measure?
JO: In the late '60s early '70s avant-garde movements arise in the U.S. and I think this is a strain that cannot hide and I'm proud to be placed as a descendant of this group and I review myself in this kind of comment.

How do you see the world of art in Portugal, there was an evolution?
JO: The world of contemporary art in Portugal somehow evolved. More artists emerged in the post-April 25th, also emerged in the last 10 years new faces in the national art scene. Our country is small and the medium of contemporary art and reflects that.

This explains why you were first successful abroad rather than your own country?
JO: Maybe.

Nine women. Nine artists. Nine islanders together in an exhibition at the cultural center of Anjos Teixeira, in Funchal, which aims to highlight the important role they play in the evolution of societies and culture as a motor, in order to mark the International Women's Day.

What did you sought to address in these two works for this exhibition?
Alice Sousa: With the title "forward" it suggests our steps in life. It has several holdings of materials, but the main idea is that we have our problems and they can stimulate us. The other work reflects an internalized nature, while using evidence. It is one of the cultural trips I made, visited Cezanne's studio where there was a tiger cat that urge for caresses, the taste of the people passing by and that remind me of my grandmother. She also had a cat that was sometimes a dog. Waiting for us at the beginning of the road, because it knew the way we came. A friend of mine, Flor Campino who was my classmate in school and lives in Port wrote a poem that was sent me and my brother and I entered that in this painting. I am made of memories and this is reflected in my work.

Do you think it is important to promote this kind of initiative, still make sense?
Irene Lucilia: I think so. It's an excuse to show the art which is practiced in Madeira. Therefore, whether is the women's week, this type of events always has its place. First, the artists appear and this leads people to share. On the other hand, being the woman behind this idea, I think some of these works have this direct relationship with the subject. It was a concern for all the artists to choose works that were related to this date.

Graça Berimbau: I chose these two pictures in order to celebrate the International Women's Day. I've had them done before, are portraits of women artists who live and work on the island. It is a painting project that I have been developing for two years. These canvases have recently joined an exhibition titled starting line. I thought it made sense to show them until they are portraits of two artists who are also in this show, Alice Sousa and Teresa Jardim.

Her name is Edna; she prefers to be Imaginary Mary because the designation brings us to a childhood world filled with colorful illustrations that define her artistic universe. A world invented by this young Portuguese illustrator, with only 26 years, which goes beyond the borders of our country, and whose early career is expected to be long and filled with huge success.

Why have you created this pseudonym?

Imaginary Maria: I thought it was an appropriate name for what I did.

Your illustrations, is based on the fairy tales of your childhood?

MI: No, I think. It is simply a kind of illustration linked to childhood, but that does not refer in any way the tales or stories.

How your creative process does take place?

MI: I have ideas and a work depends on whether commissioned or not. I always try to adapt them to get a good concept in a way that people understand the message and are adapt it to my style.

When did started this passion for design?

MI: Since I went to school I think. I took a course in illustration and comics in Ar.Co. But I work more professionally since 2009.

It is not merely a photographic exhibition, is a sensory experience, in two dimensions with images and sounds. A design that had a cross-sectional, theme the Cold War, therefore, be inspired by the new technologies and visit this show at the House of Mudas, in Calheta.

The theme paperclip extends into the remaining photographic exhibition? There are photos of nature and the urban environment.
Nuno Serrao: For me all fall in the theme, is a question of interpretation, and this I let to visitors of the exhibition to think about. There are many ways to interpret the influence of the cold war period in this exhibition, from a symbolic content where boundless imagination and a strong culture of curiosity were the main guidelines. Post-apocalyptic scenario, the strong influence of the space race, an entire urban culture that emerged at that time, there is plenty to ramble.

To what extent did you create the sounds for each image that were essential in this exhibition?
NS: The sound ambiences were directed by me and created mostly by Alexnoise were essential because they were an integral part of a concept where art is not limited to photography, but extends to the music that was created and is very involved in programming creation software.

The sound came from a mixture, or were collected on the outside and then edited?
NS: All themes are unique and each of the instruments conceived and framed in a setting that I created for each photo. There was no capture sounds in place of the photograph. The concept is to use (and other variables) sounds captured by the microphone of the telephone visitor, so that are part of each soundscape picture.
You say you had been inspired by the second world war, how took place as the creative process? What sparked this topic?
NS: Because due to the cultural, scientific, political, and military, it's a period that has always fascinated me, and I believe it is one of the crudest representations of our best and worst moments as a civilization. For all the surroundings influence me so permanently eventually was reflected (in one form or another) throughout the creative aspect.

Some of the images took a long time to be captured? Which one took more time and why?
NS: The ones that took longer were certainly long exposures, because the method ultimately requires it. Others were the result of chance. The "Milky Way Path" for example, came after frustrated day but the intention was to take pictures elsewhere. The weather set me up, or maybe not.

This is your first exhibition. Why now?
NS: Because I always thought and still think that my photography still has a lot to evolve. I just do photography for two years and, and always in a way, or only in the week-end. Since I had to start somewhere and after postponing constantly, I thought I had enough material for a first exhibition.

• To access the environment created by Nuno Serrao just connect your smartphone to the code that appears next to the picture.
http://www.discloseprojectpaperclip.com/

The Walk & Talk is a project that restores old buildings, by the confrontations of arts that embellish the city Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel, Azores. It all started when two young people met and forma a daydream reverie came the changing of facades. This year its second edition promeses more surprises, but approach and meet them.

How did you come together to envision this project? Did you previously knew each other? Where did the idea of a partnership came from?
Jesse James: Although we are both Azorean we only met in college on the mainland. And enter only this project, long after finishing our degrees.
The idea came from a reverie. In the sense we wanted to create a project with the message, which would generate enough confrontation to assert itself as an important moment in our lives and the people who come into contact with this "event".
Diana Sousa: The fact that we have gone to other living spaces helped generate confrontations with new ideas and concepts, one of the things was the urban art and how it intervenes in space.
We were getting more and more street art in the universe and the concept of public art, from the expression to the movement, to seek and evaluate artists, styles, content, design ... turned out to be a constant search. It has generate a fascination for public art and especially for the occasional form, that it communicates incomplicated and itenerant.

Why create this event? Do you think that by virtue of living in an island is isolated in parallel to other artistic movements, hence the need for exchange aesthetic languages?
JJ: After the survey, comes the desire to share, and hence the concept / movement walk & talk. As azoreans, made perfect sense to develop the project in a place that lives on its insularity. We wanted to prove that it is possible to decentralize culture and that this kind of events takes another value when developed in a space with needs at that level.
The geographical context and the concept of "Azorean" of Vitorino Nemesio, reflected in the mentality and cultural patterns extremely rich but sometimes unreceptive to change. And this is evident in the artistic experience that tends to be bipolar: popular / elitist. Lacked a middle ground, something that could create curiosity in audiences. And public art has this advantage because it is free and accessible to all: it is democratic.
The feeling of belonging is also higher, so the curiosity and willingness to interpretation are intensified. People when they are not force towards a situation enjoy much more of it, hence the insistence on creating an open air "museum" where people are confronted with artistic interventions in a casual way.
Ponta Delgada Azores as the largest city, has more critical mass and walls in need of interventions, was the venue chosen to host the free museum.
DS: By inviting artists one of the main points was the diversity of the line-up in terms of graphic language, artistic contexts, provenance of artists, and old versus new dichotomy renown talents (Azores, national and international, or worldview). Given these factors, we choose the artists we most liked.
The consideration was to participate in the walk & talk on the basis of contribution and mobilization, transforming it into something for everyone. And step by step we brought together 30 artists. Having defined the line-up, distribute the different kinds of intervention throughout the city, to which the public could relate to its own way, depending on your tastes.
And despite some conservatism, was a challenge met to convince entities and individuals to join the "movement for the end of the white walls and voiceless people."

One of the premises of your artistic movement is to make interventions on the walls of abandoned buildings. And when those outdoor spaces run out, what will you do murals?
JJ: Nothing in life is sealed, and we are very adept at change. It's like the wise man Raul Seixas says, "I prefer to be a metamorphosis, than to have that same old opinion about everything." The same applies to walk & talk a live art festival: has to change and adapt to social paradigms. The walls are just one of the supports that can be used, and accordingly there are many spaces and means use in future editions. And it happens this year.

To commemorate the third anniversary of the Prazeres Gallery, in Calheta, the motto was to create a graphic diary. An interactive artistic exhibition that transports us page after page to a creative, color full and personal world of the invited artists.

Can you explain how you got the idea of a graphic diary?
Patricia Sumares: The idea was to celebrate the third anniversary of the Gallery of Prazeres, on the 24th of October of 2011. On that date the books were distributed to the artists. We organized again an artistic meeting, as it happened at the inauguration, in the first year of existence of this space. We did a tour in which artists got together here on the island in Rabacal and organize a dinner where everyone brought something to this coexistence. In the end, we distribute diary and each artist made their own artistic intervention. The theme was originally the idea of Prazeres, but not everyone could be present at this week-end, because some artists who were invited are not living in Madeira, even had to send it by mail, then I remembered to change the theme for "other pleasures". The artists could draw, record ideas, images and all resulted in this exhibition.

How was the selection made? Were chosen taking into account that some already displayed their works at the gallery, or because they are locals?
PS: I think the first criteria that a good gallery should have is to choose the artists for the quality of their work. This is the first point. After you have a link to the gallery, in this case with the gallerist and some of this artists had exhibitions from the first moment of existence of this space. This way we create a link. A gallery has artists it represents. This collection was not created in a flash. It takes some time to explore the artist's work and if they are responsible or not. Most of them have participated in the first edition and so the invitation was directed to them. Some gave up, others have emerged, others still remained and that is what is intended in this cultural space. It's a cycle that is not vicious, but always brings dynamic changes that are positive, this indicates that there is vitality and that's what matters.

That's why you chose a small pocket agenda because it was easy to use?
PS: The books came from a conversation with a colleague Helena Sousa, who even participated and was an idea we had from the college of fine arts of Madeira that we both frequented. In this space in Carreira Street's we had a small room where artists exposed, the best students, obviously and unfortunately no longer exists. In conversation, we recall the work of an artist who made many drawings on multiple agendas, which were hung on wires. From this idea, this dialogue, came this concept, so why not join several artists in Prazeres, to draw, walk, eat together and make a statement at the end? Now we are in February 2012 commemorating the third anniversary. Which is not a problem, what matters is the ultimate goal and dream that came true.

I know it's a question very ungrateful, but which diary marked you the most.
PS: There are the ones I like because of the idea, the concept. There are others where there was dedicated time, we really need names? I do not think it's worth it. What matters is that the works are very good and is an exhibition that is organized in a way that is an asset. The idea is to be an inter-active displays. People can smell it, touch it, turn the pages and this aspect makes it very dynamic.

It’s a selection of ten proposals from artists who comprise the collective mad space invaders rushed into the challenge of performing a contemporary art work, based on "Wine." The theme explores their conceptual and literary connections, its surroundings, life, its circumstances intrinsic, act and its pleasures in a space that is symbolic the Institute of wine, embroidery and handicraft of Madeira. An exhibition that will be open until the17th of February.

How the partnership did begin between artists and the Institute of wine, embroidery and handicraft (IVBAM)?

Fatima Spinola: It came through a contact made by the Nair Morna to IVBAM. The idea is to hold an exhibition related to the wine and make this bridge between a space that is not so conventional in terms of artistic activities. They usually occur in these facilities-related events and musical craftsmanship. In this case, we will hold an exhibition of contemporary art.

Of what nature? What will we see?
Hernando M. Urrutia: The wine is just a pointer to the work of artists. That is, they cannot portray the subject as is, but taking into account the process of packaging, life, the environment that surrounds it and the system that involves wine. All the elements inherent in its history and form of production. These are the fundamentals that serve to conceptualize and handle this artistic proposal.

When you launched the challenge to the artists, they had to take into account the site? Or not?
FS: We did a first approach the site through photography. We sent pictures and the plant room for all the artists who participated. Later, we put a list on the premises of  IVBAM so that each one of them could visit the area designated for display. It was very important to see the site itself and make a project to think this space. It is a building with a very peculiar atmosphere. Even the smell, some holes that have to do with the production and the barrels that are part of the room could be used. All these aspects were mentioned and there was thought to works related to the space.

How many artists will present their work in "take your wine?"
HMU: Six artists. The choice was made through a call, not forcing anyone and we also addresses invitations to other artists outside the MADS. There was however, a pre-selection which took account of the justification of the concept, that is, what will you do in your work? And then I, as Commissioner, I choose the one that met all required parameters in advance. If more is not for lack of time, because it is a specific topic. The artists are accustomed to having a line of work, its own language and it is much easier to develop something that we were constantly developing, than to say these are the concepts that you will address and the permissive. It is more difficult, so the artist has to think, conceptualize and carry out the work. All this takes time and therefore the works are fewer.

Rui Carvalho winds explore the spontaneity and the calmness of adverse situations. The idea is to keep a fresh mind in the middle of a gale, a storm. To exorcise the demons who do not like paper. To cultivate creativity thru graphics inspired by their daily lives, the memories of lost youth, but not forgotten. From the man. The artist.

The exhibition "winds" is crowded with characters who symbolize what?
Rui Carvalho: Were chosen at random, has a certain symbolism. It was the spontaneity of the subject, when I drew was a phase, not a very good one, each day I was picking up a theme through the newspaper, I had to disentangle because the work had to be done, sometimes the inspiration didn't came so I had to draw pictures and motivations of the day to day to spent during that hour.

Was inspired by news that you have read?
CR: Those characters that are virtually pulled out of my imagination and also had models that did not draw like that. I used my creativity, through the model. For example, the base was a picture of the reality I imagined something else.

So what is this world?
RC: It's an underground world based on comics. The basis is that, the eighties, but it's a graphic work. I turned the comic book of which I was a fan into a graphical statement.

Who were the authors who inspired you?
RC: All. One of the authors I met in Lisbon was the Joao Santos Afonso and still other personalities who follow on the same line, for example, Rigo, but by then they were not only in Europe, I met people who did the same.
Are references for this work then ...
RC: There are influences. We are of the same generation, I am currently 46 years at the time I was twenty-five years and had an interaction between all brutal.