Lisboa Third Places 🐓

For me, the theme of these past two weeks and maybe even Lisbon as a whole is art in the streets, what purpose they serve, and how government intervention can be a bad or good thing. Two major sites, Bons Sons in Cem Soldos and Bairro de Arte Pública in Sacavém really stood out to me.

The first one, Bons Sons, was a Portuguese music festival with the purpose of honoring the rich tradition of the village while keeping the younger generation’s interest alive. The theme of this year’s festival was art in the streets and there were installations, exhibits, and performances throughout the weekend. All of them paid homage to the residents of Cem Soldos and sought to connect the community with the outsiders. It was a beautiful homage to the long history of the aldeias (villages) in Portugal and was a good experience for me personally since it was all in Portuguese. Not a lick of English.

However, the whole time I was at this festival I kept thinking about Quinta do Mocho in Sacavém and how the government intervention in this instance sort of flopped. Don’t get me wrong, there are over a hundred masterpieces throughout the public housing neighborhood, but past that there was little communication and collaboration with the community. Artists came from all over the world, some paid homage to the community and others just made murals of famous people for the clout. The street art festival that used to happen every year died out with the installment of a new government, but according to my tour guide, this was probably a good thing.

More info on these two sites/events will be up on my website soon, but for now, I am taking my time with transcribing my journal entries and just trying to enjoy walking for miles in a new city where I feel so safe and happy.