Fernando, please tell us something about the "place" where you grow up. What kind of place it was?

FB: It’s a very interesting question. I recall my childhood living on the outskirts in Lisbon. Urban sprawl stared at our doorsteps; the road that was being built stopped just in front of our house. From there on, it was just “space” There was a very interesting phenomena at that time. All the buildings blocks close to my parent’s apartment had janitors, normally people coming from the countryside. Almost all of them started to occupy the empty lots and built dozens of garden plots. I belong to a generation that still played on open space, in the street. I remembered very well of playing in those plots with my friends. Many years after I made a project about the land occupation (Nas Hortas) in which I approached that phenomena. Moreover, my family uses to spend some time in Setúbal during summer vacations. I recall playing in the moor “Várzea”, which was an agricultural area in the edge of town. Many years later I built a photographic project in that place. So, I can say that my childhood, the way we played in open spaces, the way we reinvented space, and my memories of it, still inform my work today.

How did you approach the "visual", and how your education path influenced you? Your studies, your experiences, courses...?

FB: Actually, I started to approach photography in a more serious way when I was a mountain climber, many years ago. Mountain climbing, mountain walking and other outdoor practices were an integral part of my life and so did photography too. I did photo coverages for some newspapers and magazines. Then, I and a group of friends started a small company related to nature and outdoor activities. Besides other responsibilities; I become involved in the audiovisual department. After I left the company, I become what we can call a “nature photographer”. For some years that’s what I did. Then I restart studying again. Apart from many other schools that I attended, I became involved with a school of photography and visual arts named “Atelier de Lisboa”. I studied there for five years where I had the privilege of working with Portuguese photographers like Paulo Catrica, António Júlio Duarte and Daniel Malhão.

© Paulo Catrica from the series 'Stadia', Lfc264 S.Alhandra vs Sanjoanense, Alhandra, 19.10.2003

Then I went for the University of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where I did a post-graduation on photography and a Master of Arts in Multimedia/Audiovisual. I had also the opportunity to go to Germany to the stimulating environment of HfG Karlsruhe (University of Arts and Design) where I continued to develop my work within the moving image and installation context, in the class of Portuguese artist João Tabarra. Nowadays I’m involved in a Ph.D. program in the specialty of Multimedia/Audiovisual once again in Lisbon. One of the most interesting things that happened during this period is that I changed my working process. Nowadays, I don’t limit myself to photography. I also use moving images; I make short films that I combine with photographs, maps, technical drawings and sound in order to build audiovisual installations. Behind this, is the idea of “Third Cinema” (Troisiéme Cinema) suggested by the french researcher Pascalle Cassagnau, which considers the Third Cinema as the shared visual territory, the environment where we can establish intersections and promote dialogue with the other contemporaneous artistic practices. I consider this change as very liberating, in the sense that now, the conceptual and the visual are better balanced.

© João Tabarra, Balance, Karlsruhe, 2017

Many of your works are based on the intersection of human activities and the use of land. What are in general your cultural assumptions with this regard? (Any particular references, books, statements, philosophy, as well ...)

FB: As I mentioned before I always had a strong connection to places since my childhood. To establish a connection to a place is a very slow and intense process. We can call it an intimate connection or an intimate process. But it is also about tension. The tension between a detached vision associated with traditional representation and experience associated with the mentioned intimate connection. In that sense my approach is informed by the work of cultural geographers such as Yi-Fu-Tuan, J.B. Jackson and especially by Italian geographer Eugenio Turri that develop the concept of landscape as theatre (Paesaggio come teatro). Turri place us simultaneously as actors and spectators of our own intervention in the territory. That’s precisely the tension I’ve been working with. Also important, the writing of Michel Foucault and the concept of “heterotopic places”, Michel de Certeau, and the idea of “practiced place”, Gaston Bachelard, etc. I would like to mention just a few artists: I can’t avoid mentioning the French photographer Eugene Atget. Also important to me is the work of Lewis Baltz, the Italian photographers Luigi Ghirri and Guido Guidi, Simone Nieweg, among many others. In the cinematic environment, Pasolini, of course… the way Pasolini leads his characters along with suburban landscapes, revealing it through their gestures, as for instance in “Mamma Roma”, in “Accatone”, or in another context, in “Teorema”. Also, Antonioni, the way he built his compositions and the way he put (urban) landscapes as the main character in his films. But also James Benning films, the work of Sharon Lockart, João Tabarra photographs and films, Francis Allys’s films, Michael Snow unforgettable body of work, especially “La Region Centrale” Well, we could be all day talking about this. It would be a great pleasure but there’s no time…

© Eugène Atget, courtesy of George Eastman House

In your research 'MAPA 454' you reflect on "inverse" or "invisible" processes in urban transformation. These forms of analysis tickle the theoretical foundations of urbanism. Somehow they show us what remains between the lines of the dominant narrative in terms of territorial policies. For centuries we have been pursuing positivist and rational models whose impacts, however, are not seriously questioned. On which kind of geographical area focuses on? When does this macro project start and why? What skills were involved in the studies? And what were your main difficulties? Finally, in terms of social dissemination of the results, what were the ambitions and what were the results?

FB: The project “MAPA#454” was based on the idea of using micro stories in order to reflect on the process of urban sprawl and his effects on the landscape in the South Bank of Tagus River. I picked up a topographic map (Map #454), representing an area close to where I live and I realized that I could restrain myself to the area circumscribed by it. Why? Because, in part due to my knowledge of the field, I was able to identify a few spots that allowed me to approach different issues related to the central theme. So I had my micro-stories confined to a relatively small amount of territory, which gave the opportunity to return to those spots as many times as I could. That is very important in my working process. Even today, I really feel the need to establish a strong connection to the places I photograph or film. That is something that I will never lose. So, here we are again talking about intimacy and sense of place. At the time I used to photograph with a large format camera, which is a very slow process as you know. That slowness also helped my process, in the sense that it made me more aware of what was going on around me. It was my intention to build a project that always allowed new entries, new chapters, something like an infinite book. I was so overwhelmed and committed with I was doing that in fact, the main difficulty was to stop, in order to editing on time for the exhibitions. From 2012 to 2014 I was able to make several exhibitions based on the three “chapters” of the project. But the best output that I really had, was my participation in Urbanautica’s project “Feed a Different Imagination” in 2015. I’m very proud that my work had been chosen for such a wonderful project.

Book 'Feed a different imagination', Urbanautica Institute, 2015

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Nas Hortas'

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Nas Hortas'

In chapter 'AUGI 12' you deal with some clandestine or rather informal settlements. Somehow you show how anarchist dimensions of living exist between the folds of planning. On a small scale, you confirm what has long been observed on a world scale. That is the dimension of social externality, or of exclusion, produced by neoliberal democracies indifferent to the inequalities they generate. What did you found and understood while exploring these areas?

FB: The expression A.U.G.I. means in English, Urban Areas from Illegal Origin. It was one of the legal procedures by which the Portuguese State has been facing the phenomena of illegal settlements after the transition to democracy in 1974. The south bank of Tagus River has been an area subjected to enormous urban pressures, especially after the opening of the bridge over the Tagus in 1966. That leads us to a very interesting issue. That of the suburb as “promised land” or as a “new beginning”. To have his own house has always been a cultural issue in Portugal. To have its own piece of “Heaven on Earth”. That’s the idea behind those suburban settlements, people bought land plots and conducted a process of self-construction in which they put all their savings and efforts. To a certain extent, we can call it an “Arcadian Suburbia”. The way those settlements were implemented in the ’60s and 70’, was completely out of control and conducted by unscrupulous entrepreneurs that took advantage of the lack of legislation and information. The problem that still arises is that there are settlements waiting for more than 40 years to be legally integrated. In some cases, people don’t have water or electricity. A.U.G.I. #12 is one of those examples. Everything went wrong. Even a small creek that runs nearby became dry due to the construction of a roundabout a few kilometers away. The source was sealed. I would say that in this context, “new beginnings” sometimes became nightmares.

© Fernando Brito from the series ' A.U.G.I. #12'

© Fernando Brito from the series ' A.U.G.I. #12'

© Fernando Brito from the series ' A.U.G.I. #12'

© Fernando Brito from the series ' A.U.G.I. #12'

© Fernando Brito from the series ' A.U.G.I. #12'

The second part of your research 'Várzea' tells us about "forgotten" lands as wastes of a peri-urbanization process. Within the urban metastasis - that upsets the landscape by erasing references and discontinuities, consuming agricultural civilization and replacing it with an army of condescending "citizens" eager to consume the products of social emancipation - we can observe dissident behavior codes as well as tracking down a latent and difficult to quell creative disorder. Please tell us about these territorial short circuits... What did you discover and understood?

FB: “Várzea” in English means “Moor”, a stretch of land that becomes flooded by water from rainfalls. This moor in Setúbal had considerable economic importance in the last century, especially until the mid-60s. There were dozens of small farms in that area. Then, urban sprawl. It involved public policies of urban planning. (or lack of it) by the successive city councils for decades. City councils allowed construction in agricultural lands and close to an overflow area near a river bed. So, the moor has become more and more narrow, and little by little agriculture has been abandoned. The project “Várzea” was conducted in the last breath of that place. I was able to do some photographs on the last remaining farm. I recall that at the time, I felt something was about to change. You know, that old expression “calmness before the storm”. And that’s what happened. That place was completely destroyed to give rise to an Urban Park, a leisure area in which not even a square centimeter was allocated to agriculture. And we know how important small scale urban agriculture is these days. Especially now, that we face such a challenge as the pandemic of Covid#19. So, this is not exactly the same process as in A.U.G.I. # 12 or even “Nas Hortas”. You are right when talking about armies of “condescending citizens”. This process was conducted without any critical thought or protest.

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Várzea'

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Várzea'

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Várzea'

I remember well your work 'Nas Hortas' which we published in 2015 in the 'Feed a different imagination' catalog, dedicated to the theme of food and sustainability. What attracted me to this series of portraits of urban gardens was the fact that they are spontaneous occupations. And here we return to the reflection on the informal management of the territory. In particular, the theme of food self-production that escapes the logic of industrialization of the agri-food chain. Tell us about this project, what did you discover about this phenomenon? What stories have you encountered?

FB: “Nas Hortas” was one of the most important projects I have ever built. From there I was able to build bridges with my present work. At that time several issues were at stake. First, as you have already mentioned the spontaneous character of land occupation. The background of the three projects has a common ground: the process of urban sprawl increased by the bridge over Tagus opening in the mid-60s. In A.U.G.I # 12 I brought about the issue of the “suburban promised land“ and the tensions that lay beneath. “Várzea” is about vanishing. Vanishing of a certain kind of land occupation, vanishing of ways of living. “Nas Hortas” is about the reinvention of space, spontaneity, self-management, and intimacy with place. I talk about reinvention of space in the sense that the spontaneous character of land occupation is, by itself, an action that infuses place with meaning. Places are not just locations; we give meaning to a place especially through the intimate connection we establish with it. Places escape amnesia through a process of reinvention, trough action. And here again, the thoughts of Eugenio Turri are very important as well as De Certeau's concept of “practiced place”. It was that process of intimacy that captured my attention at that time. The way people materialized that connection through simple constructions made with raw and wasted materials was something that really amazed me. Also, the self-management aspect is really important here. In this process of spontaneous occupation, there are no leaders; no one is really in charge. Everybody negotiates with his neighbor. Of course, this is only possible due to the relatively small scale. Anyway, there is a strong political and poetic charge on the process of spontaneous occupation of land. I believe it’s a way of resistance.

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Nas Hortas'

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Nas Hortas'

© Fernando Brito from the series 'Nas Hortas'

Let's talk now about your recent work 'The Invention of Amnesia'. An artist-in-residency project lead by a collective of visual artists, Alexandre Alagôa, Fernando Brito, Miguel Rodrigues, Nuno Andrade, and Renato Japi, that invokes the trajectory of a road as well as his surrounding areas as a starting point for the investigation. Could you introduce us more to this initiative and the specific projects?

FB: “The Invention of Amnesia” is a collective project that calls for our intimate relationship with place. All the participants have something that connects them to the road. The road in question is National Road Nr. 10, one of the most important traffic connections of Lisbon Metropolitan Area. We’ve tried to avoid a sociological or historicist approach, since our interest is related to our personal experience with that place. Some of us live close to it; others use it in a daily basis as commuters. So we’re back to sense of place, intimacy and experience. A road is much more than his trajectory or even his fluxes, but I guess we could say that sense of place is also conditioned by the way we move through it, so roads and paths are essential in the way we experience landscape. Our project calls our intimate experience with the territory in order to relate it with everyday practice, circularity, repetition and memory of place. We also reflect on processes of reinvention of space, and the role of human gesture in landscape representation.

Another important aspect is that we didn’t want to do just a few more exhibitions. When we launched this project we’ve created several outputs that function as reference points in the whole process. In short, we are going to have four exhibitions in four distinct locations all along the trajectory of the National Road Nr 10. In each of these exhibitions, there will be a talk in which we invite some participants not only from artistic areas, but also associated with complementary areas of knowledge, in order to promote debate of ideas in the field of landscape studies. The challenge is to be able to build an exhibition model in which images coexist with production of critical thought and proximity with people that lives within the area circumscribed by the road. Moreover, we are cooperating with the project Museu da Paisagem (Landscape Museum) which is a very fascinating research project related to landscape studies, located in a Portuguese university. That cooperation implies creating a new output for our work, based on a digital platform.

© Fernando Brito, still from the film 'Caminhos Vagamente Circundantes'

My participation in the whole project aims to create the possibility of relating landscape and human gesture. I call for the tension between gesture, the experience of place and representation. In that sense, I consider the primordial gestures of walking, stopping, falling, rising, etc. as actions, in the artistic and politic sense of the word. Since nowadays I also use moving images, in this first exhibition, I´ve made two films to be set as an audiovisual installation. I´ve created a sort of character that stems from two different origins: first, the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope (424-323 A.C.) who incorporates the concept of gesture as an action, as a political and poetical act, especially in his famous allegory of the candle. Second the ruckenfigur of painter Caspar David Friedrich in his known painting The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818).

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, c. 1818, oil-on-canvas, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. Public Domain

So, in short, my character assumes different positions in the two movies: in the first one as a walker, in which I call for circularity, repetition, and change. The character walks the same circular pathway five times in distinct moments of the day starting at dawn and ending at twilight. In the second one as an observer, someone who is looking from a cliff to an “amnesic place” where it seems there’s nothing to see. He is always present with a flashlight in his hand in broad daylight always searching for something that we never know what it is. Thus he reinvents space through his gestures; something close to what Michel de Certeau calls “the practiced place”. This way, gestures, actions, and body gather in order to reinvent place through a certain poetics of absurdity.

Miguel Rodrigues uses photography in an obsessive process of looking to the ground, almost as an archaeological or forensic methodology. By using found objects and traces left in the ground in a section of the road, he relates it to ideas of habit, memory and repetition. Moreover, he builds a web of relations in which the sculptural aspect of those found objects contrasts with the loss of his original function. On the other hand, by using traces left by vehicles as movement and flux, he creates a cinematic out-of field in which concepts such as the production of presence and duration are related to the detachment between the observer and the implicit space, in the context of landscape representation.

© Miguel Rodriguez from the series 'A Invenção da Amnésia'

For Nuno Andrade roads have always been a field of inspiration in the artistic field. The imaginary of the “Road Trip” and the appeal of voyage and discovery might be responsible for that, according to him. Nuno, in his approach, let himself be driven by the road. He departs from close observation of small groups of people that are present in the everyday life of the road. He establishes an intimate relationship with those people and brings forth their micro stories, their habits and their behaviour in the way they inhabit the road. By using documentary style photography, he turns the road into a stage in which he builds a personal map of that territory, through the daily actions and movements of his characters. His proposal is also a reflection about the importance of walking and observing as a method to approach small events and details of every day that charge a place with meaning.

© Nuno Andrade

Renato Japi uses sculpture in order to reflect on the process through which scale and perspective operate upon the perception of space and architecture. In his sculptural pieces, he brings the ideas of inner and outer space and calls for a connection with the sacred, bringing some ancestral echoes to contemporaneity. By the sculptural aspect of his approach, the work of Renato Japi establishes a dialogue with the other artists, promoting a sense of continuity between all the works present in this project.

© Renato Japi

Finally the work of Alexandre Alagôa, which we can consider as being in the realm of video art and experimental sound, explores the infinite ways of moving across an abandoned building near the road. He uses hypnotic camera movements and assembles hundreds of photograms which he carefully organizes and leads us to a state in which we face vertigo and disorientation. This is a concept from which we are going to depart in one of the other outputs of our project that I will explain in more detail in the next question.

© Alexandre Alagôa 

What about the exhibition. What are the curatorial assumptions and what are the plans considered the recent global emergency?

FB: Right from the beginning we wanted to avoid the idea of an exhibition as solely the sum of the parts, or the sum of individualities. That was the challenge. This time we’ve chosen not to work with a curator, which is an entirely new experience. The space of the exhibition is an old building from the 18th Century, which placed another challenge due to the architectural presence and historical charge associated with it. The main concept tries to incorporate one of the key ideas of the project: circularity. In fact, we’ve set this exhibition as if it was an installation. Due to the specific architecture of the space, which had many rooms and doors, we were able to create circularity and a sense of being in a labyrinth. In almost all of the rooms, we managed to place two or three bodies of work in dialogue. I can say that we are very happy with the results. Unfortunately, we had to close the exhibition due to recent developments in the crisis of COVID-19. Apart from a few photographs made in the opening; we didn’t have (yet) the opportunity to photograph the whole exhibition. We expect to do so as soon as it is possible, but now it’s time to stay safe…

Picture from the opening of the exhibition “The Invention of Amnesia” at Casa De Avenida, Setubal, Portugal. February 29, 2020 © Maria João Lucas

Picture from the opening of the exhibition “The Invention of Amnesia” at Casa De Avenida, Setubal, Portugal. February 29, 2020 © Maria João Lucas 

Picture from the opening of the exhibition “The Invention of Amnesia” at Casa De Avenida, Setubal, Portugal. February 29, 2020 © Maria João Lucas 

In the context of our cooperation with the research project Museu da Paisagem (Landscape Museum) we are presently building another output to our work that is a real challenge to us. I’m talking about a web based platform (Project Room) from which is going to be developed an online presentation based on the whole body of work of this first exhibition. The idea of a virtual labyrinth is going to be complemented by the use of sound as a presence that acts as “glue” all along the virtual “journey”. This output was something that was already planned, but the recent developments related to the spread of COVID-19, make this project even more important. It is scheduled to be on-line in May and will be hosted on the digital platform until the end of August. Hopefully, it will be ready soon! Life can’t stop.