Residências Artísticas 2024
artistic reflections on the Rio Mira and the local territory
part of
The Guardiões do Mira project presents the Residências Artísticas Programme 2024, an initiative that paves the way for artistic reflections on the Rio Mira and the local territory. This programme invites eight artists, from April to June and September to November, to take part in an artistic residency in the Odemira region, at local associations PROJECT EARTH, CACO, Cultivamos Cultura and Oficina na Escola.
The first residency starts on the 20th of April and includes the participation of the artists Sérgio Carronha, Hugo Brazão, Maja Escher and Adriana João. Throughout these two months, the artists will be working in their respective host associations and reflecting on the region, strengthening the culture of care and emotional ties with the river through their practice. Every fortnight we'll meet to share ideas and launch challenges to the community, in a programme of walks that will include the participation of local connoisseurs and guest curators. The programme of walks, open days at the artists' studios and film screenings will be announced soon.
The participating organisations
The GUARDIÕES DO MIRA project seeks to foster and consolidate collaborative processes based on trust and respect for the identity of each of the organisations involved. This collaboration results in greater territorial cohesion and more efficient processes. The Residências Artísticas 2024 programme was developed and hosted by four local organisations located along the River Mira:
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PROJECT EARTH (Santa Clara-a-Velha / Saboia)
Theme: Art-Community
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CACO - Associação de Artesãos de Odemira (Odemira)
Theme: Art-Materiality
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Cultivamos Cultura (São Luís)
Theme: Art-Science
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Oficina na Escola (Vila Nova de Milfontes)
Theme: Art-Activism
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This programme has the support of DGArtes
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and the Odemira Criativa programme of the Municipality of Odemira
The artists
Sérgio Carronha (Cascais, *1984) lives and works in Montemor-o-Novo, Alentejo, Portugal. His practice focuses on the use of ceramics and earth materials, creating unsettling objects that valorise the raw material, its provenance and the possibility of reuse. After moving to the Alentejo in 2010, her practice was strongly influenced by the characteristics of this region and its culture, becoming the main source of inspiration. Gathering stones, collecting clays and natural pigments, but also observing archaeological artefacts and their geometric archetypes, the artist's process always becomes the result of his experience in this space and in this land, creating a sensory approach to the temporal and material stratification of soils and cultures. Carronha has been developing a long-term land-art project in which he aspires to expand his sculptural practice and model the land on a larger scale.
The artistic residency of Sérgio Carronha will take place between 20 April and 20 May at the PROJECT EARTH Association in Santa Clara-a-Velha.
Hugo Brazão (Madeira, *1989) lives and works in Lisbon. His artistic practice straddles painting, sculpture and textiles and develops from the fiction/reality paradox, reimagining the material found in his research and seeking out the technical possibilities and different narratives that are created around it. Brazão completed an MA in Fine Arts with distinction at Central Saint Martins in London (2015) and a degree in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon (2013). He was awarded the VIA Arts Prize 2018 in London, the Helen Scott Lidgett Studio Award in 2015 and regularly takes part in international artist residencies.
Hugo Brazão will be at Associação CACO - Associação de Artesãos do Concelho de Odemira from 20 April to 20 May.
Maja Escher (Santiago do Cacém, *1990) lives and works between Lisbon and Monte Novo da Horta dos Colmeeiros. She completed her BA and MA in Multimedia Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon and studied at the Architecture and Visual Arts School - London (2011). She took the Ceramics course at Ar.Co and was awarded a scholarship in Individual Project - Ceramics at the same institution (2018/19). Her practice focuses on the use of ceramics in the search for an archetypal place, exploring the idea of belonging to a place (shelter, home) of being at home in the world. The act of collecting is very present in her work and gives rise to many of her site-specific installations. For Escher, the focus of her work is on the relationship with others, the perception and exploration of aspects of nature, commemorations, ancestral rituals, festivities and popular expressions.
Maja Escher will be at Cultivamos Cultura in S. Luís. from 20 April to 20 May.
Adriana João (*1998) lives and works in Lisbon. She began her musical studies in 2005 at the Joly Braga Santos Conservatory in Portimão, where she studied violin until 2013. She attended the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where she graduated in Multimedia Art - Performance / Installation, and post-graduated in both Sound Art and Multimedia Art - Moving Image. Her transdisciplinary and intuitive work blends sound, moving image, performance, sculpture, photography and installation. It emerges from subtle coincidences present in the perpetual immaterial link between everything that exists, hovering between perfect and imperfect intertwined cycles, and patterns that derive from common tangents.
Adriana João will be showing her art from 20 April to 20 May at Oficina da Escola in Vila Nova de Milfontes.