Fuso Festival and 31 Seconds of Lisbon
Oi!! Olá!! I am headed to my next room in Lisbon, so I want to share another glimpse of my first month here. If you know me well, you know about my mild obsession with one second of the day. Attached above is my first month boiled down to just 31 seconds ;)
Last week, I also attended two nights of the Fuso video art festival. It is a free festival over the course of 5 days at various event spaces around the city. Fuso showcases the best video artworks at the most idyllic locations across the city with funding from major institutions such as MAAT (The Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology) and the Portuguese government’s culture sector. I saw incredible works of art in the courtyard of a palace and the puppet museum (I still need to go back and check it out during the day).
The best news is that the public can watch the films for free until September 4th. If you want to learn more about the video art world in Portugal, I would highly recommend watching the A Utopia da Paz and Nós Ser o Outro series. Daniel Barroca and Monica de Miranda are two artists that I’ve followed closely these past couple of weeks. I had lunch with Daniel last week and he taught me so much about Portuguese politics and talked me through his upcoming documentary about Guinea Bissau. His short film “Soldier playing with a dead lizard” from 2008 takes a dark turn on what utopia and peace mean in an already war-torn and traumatized society. Monica de Miranda’s work takes a very theoretical tone to understand decoloniality and postmemory. Two of her shorts are in the Nós Ser o Outro series.
Next up… I am going to another short film festival with Cinema no Estendal. I am still so in awe of the free film events here. I went to another event by Cinema no Estendal earlier this month that took place in a mini plaza in Graça. This next event is in an area more north of the city and will feature a range of international films, from experimental works and documentaries to music videos. The only requirement is that they are under 15 minutes.
In the visual arts realm, I will be visiting the Fundação de Oriente and chatting with a curator about the challenges that come along with the institution. I want to learn more about the Portuguese presence in Asia within the art world and dive deeper into the challenges given their colonial history. I am also interested in learning more about this exhibit (which you can still view online) that features contemporary artists from Timor Leste.
