Under the Bridge

When I came to Lisbon, in March 2010, I also came with the idea of organising some exhibitions and events. Something I had been meaning to do for a while, but, for several reasons, had not. I hooked up with my friend Sophie Royer, whom I had met when I lived in Lisbon for a few months in 2000. In 2005 she had started a collective called ZAAT www.zaat.net, and each year she organised an arts and music festival called ZAAT Mostra de Artes Visuais e Sonoras. I started collaborating with her on projects, first doing a Silent Disco in July, and then the fifth edition of the festival. The ZAAT Mostra de Artes Visuais e Sonoras is running until December 15th, and it involves artists from Portugal and abroad exhibiting in non-tradition spaces like homes, offices and garages. One featured work is the Itinerant Camera Obscura, by Cristina Saez www.cristina-saez.com. Cristina came with the idea of doing a camera obscura, but we didn't have a place for it, so she decided to do it in a tent, and every Saturday we take it to a different location. Yesterday I went on an expedition to the Ponte 25 de Abril, and set up the tent there. In the same location there is a public art project involving shipping containers. Different artists have been invited to work with three containers. The last and most recent is a piece by Portuguese artist José Pedro Croft.