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07/03/2009: "Packing Up & Starting Over"
Four years have gone by and it�s getting harder to keep time from slipping by. Is it age-related or just the fact that I�ve been keeping busy? I really don�t give it much thought, it�s just a fact I�m confronted with now that I�ve packed up my studio and shipped my things off to a new destination where I�ll start all over again.
In the past year, though, keeping busy had something to do with it. One of the reasons I decided to stop posting on aa was because there was too much I needed to tend to, and the lure of the ethereal world was sneakily keeping me away from the real one. But I also felt that a break from blogging and commenting might actually be a good healthy thing. Too many things kept popping up on my screen asking me to join and I needed to distance myself from my computer �routine� to be able to focus on the concrete things I wanted to achieve at the studio. What�s the point of being on 8 different sites if you can�t get anything worthwhile completed in the real world to talk about?
So let me tell you about some of the few things I was able to help out with apart from my own production and input at OD?
In this past year OD � oficina do desenho � came a long way. From being a small independent art school where Rui A�o gathered his students and I helped out as tutor and developed my own projects as artist in residence we have become an association and have since started to engage our community in a more pro-active way.
The snowball had been picking up momentum but it was really only after we presented our collective project at the Cascais Cultural Centre [Dec 08 to Feb 09] that we started to realise the impact OD seemed to be having and that we became fully aware of the opportunities and responsibilities we could expect in the coming years.
The project 3 Men on a Boat in which Rui and I teamed up with Fernando Vidal - before he distanced himself for professional reasons - was not a commercial exhibition but nevertheless it was one of the most successful projects I ever took part in. The reward was not monetary; it was much more valuable than that. I think I can safely say that it enhanced our presence as artists and as trustworthy partners within our community. It opened doors for future exhibition possibilities and collaborations with the local authorities both as consultants and as active creative participants in cultural activities. And, because it went on for over two months it exposed us to a greater audience, as a matter of fact it was one of the least publicized yet most visited exhibitions at the cultural centre ever.
The staff at the Centre were tremendous, they fell in love with the project and went beyond the call of duty to spread the contagion to visitors coming in to see the galleries hosting more publicized artists. Maybe this had to do with the fact that Rui and I were present on location most of the time. Indeed, to me it felt like home for those twelve weeks. Personally I didn�t so much see this as an occasion to dump my work, no matter how beautifully presented, but as a privileged opportunity to deepen the much needed connections with curators and the people in charge.
I also invited a few selected people over to lunch at the centre�s restaurant and gave tours, maybe not so much spoken but just to be there with the public lest they wanted to ask questions, and though we invariably spoke about other things it was always somehow linked to the philosophy behind the work and what we aim to achieve with the school.
Local schools, from kindergarten to 12th graders, organized field-trips to see the show and ask us questions� and, sometimes, play with the dangling steel treads of my boat, which, I�ll admit, must have been a temptation for any child [and I caught a glimpse of the odd grown-up having a go!], but it was so inspiring to be caught up in their enthusiasm that it made it impossible to ask them not to touch. I can�t even begin to tell you how rewarding it was to see my installation and video through the eyes of those children. No amount of money can equal that.
Once that was over I slowly entered into a new mode � different tempo, different focus. In January my wife was told that she would be reassigned to a new posting and so when we took down the show my boat came straight back home. I continued to paint and oversee the work of the students at OD up until the end of May but the students couldn�t help but notice how the paintings, art materials and unfinished canvases kept disappearing until there was nothing left but the original concrete space I had added a little colour to over the three years I was there.
I�ll miss those exchanges with the students, I�ll miss Rui�s insight and companionship, our painting styles may seem diametrically opposed but we share much in common and I learnt a great deal from him while I was there. It was good while it lasted, and I�ll always be connected to the school in some capacity or other, I am, after all, one of the founders, but I�ve become more and more absorbed with the move and have instinctively crept into that buffer-zone I know inside of me where I am able to cope with the loss and prepare for the new stuff.
In May, with me half-here-half-there and not being much help, OD organised an event that brought together commerce and art in an attempt to boost people�s morale and get them back on the streets looking at the shops and at the art. The original idea was for 30 shops to allow 30 artists to redo their shop windows with art for two weeks and hand out a prize for the best collaboration [artists and shop owners were supposed to work together on this], but things soon got out of our hands when word spread and we ended up with sixty shops... and minus 30 artists. Ana Gr�cio and Rita Cardim solved things smoothly, amazingly and in record time, rounding up the remaining artists and getting some of the school�s own students, as well as other art schools to join in the ride. Also, the work they had as coordinators, getting artists and shop owners to get along peacefully while at the same time getting all the visuals ready and out on the streets [banners, leaflets with maps, red carpets for the important guests at the cocktail, etc.] was an important part of the event�s success, contributing greatly to putting OD on the local map.
I won�t go into the details here but it was a tremendous success, with a formal opening by the Mayor and the cultural and legal advisors from the Town Hall and the Cascais Cultural Centre taking their time to see each and every shop, talking to the artists and shop owners [when initially it had been said that there would only be time for a brief overview of the main square area]. From here on I think many things are possible, many doors have opened, both for OD and for each individual helping out to make it what we all wish it to become. And even if in the years to come I won�t be participating as an active participant I still look forward to telling you more about its progress as Rui keeps me informed, because I now think of it as one of my babies as well.
As for me, soon, I hope, I�ll be getting back to the business of setting up a new studio and looking for new projects � starting from scratch... in Japan.
