So, it is not for the young artists who are just starting?
NF: May also be. These young artists should already have a self-training. There are artists who graduated in the schools, with academic training, you must have something else, and a set of learning's done, so in that sense it is an advance and not initiating training. After the workshop has a teaching model that varies from year to year ever in terms of exercise, structure and number of tutors. For example, the 2011 edition had a lot to do with this region, in this case the Algarve. So I would say that is the analysis of various aspects of that specific territory, is not something that is detached.
The trainers are chosen by these characteristics?
NF: Not necessarily. We have people who are very knowledgeable about the area, architects, anthropologists, etc . . . . , Then the remaining trainers come from other places with different experiences and it interested us. It is necessary to work in a wider formation, in the sense, of artistic terms, but always informed by specific knowledge of that place.
So each issue is a different place?
NF: The first four editions were in Loulé. The themes were related to awareness of the place, the purpose either individual or artistic. It is the development of the artistic practice of the participants, but never forgetting, or always starting from where we are working, either as in the old mill, the gates of heaven, where we work with the space, and the walls with lime, which in the end had many mural painting. Also in memory of the place, what represented for the city and the territory we chose to document?
What are the new targets?
NF: The first objective, after four magnificent years with the Chamber of Loulé, is to make the project more autonomous of the public sector, should be completely different. Should become autonomous from the structural standpoint. The second is from the experience of four years that we have become a truly international project and the place as a site of production and knowledge.
International in the sense to bring foreign artists to Portugal or to take Algarve out of the country?
NF: Both. I think we are living a very special moment , that is no longer the scale that matters and even then , people do extraordinary projects in the cultural sphere . It is to recover traditional knowledge and "mobile home " increasingly expanded this area of deep understanding of the place and with this transformation we are living with an ever-growing population is necessary to develop small-scale projects very well structure . We felt that this concept has all the conditions to become a concept of reference from the standpoint of training. And obviously promote the Algarve as a starting point.
You mentioned that this project appears due to a gap in the field of contemporary art. Do you think that this is due to the fact that the Algarve is known for its pottery, tiles and ceramics?
NF: To me just interests me the work I do. I do not distinguish curating work, of an artist, which has its own rules that are part of the same context, the same will. I am interested in working with the conditions of the place where we are, or do work form what is detached from my own existence and therefore work with the tools I have in this matter. And so, in the Algarve, there is a very strong tradition of these disciplines. What is a lack of coordination between tradition and contemporaneity, which begins to be a much more interesting and conscious with the young artisans, or researchers and artists that regain ancestral practices and update them? I think its all part of the same movement of the deep roots of where we are. It is very important to depart from them and stand with our feet on the ground for a more transfiguring work. In "mobile home " we worked the relationship, between craft and gastronomy of the place, or those most ancient practices in a contemporary language.
You think it's also a geographical issue? The failure to consider that the Algarve is an area where you can find contemporary art, because we associate these artistic movements to major urban centers like Lisbon and Porto.
NF: No, I mean, on the contrary, there are many interesting artists to live, work here and we do not even know who they are. What scarces still are structures for these artists to produce and display their work, particularly critical infrastructure? But, the Algarve is one example among others, Madeira I presume is the same, although there is amazing this project that is port 33, aged 25, who has been pioneer and has very solid information dissemination.
Do you think then that is a national problem? We do not value contemporary art yet.
NF: I think not, obviously there are a greater structuring, more institutions, more public and more participation. In the Algarve it was a glaring problem, but now I think less noticeable, more contemporary thought and the connection with the ancestry and more traditional practices have increased of vitality. Moreover, that what is contemporary by definition is difficult to be internalized by the public and takes more time. But I think there is a very large vitality in Portugal in contemporary creation, beyond the centers of Lisbon, Porto and Guimarães.
But Guimarães is only included in that roll due of the capital of culture?
NF: Not necessarily, because Guimarães had already structured in cultural terms. The Vila Flor Cultural Center, which is managed by the workshop, had already deep work. Every city, every land has to find their place, their specificity and work on it. Since I went to the Algarve , I had the perspective of those who work in the suburbs, because I have always been involved in institutions in Lisbon and realized that although there is much work to do, there is great potential. To me it feels right working in those places where tradition is very strong. It is a kind of natural substrate where they can establish relationships nexus and contemporary production.
