V-I-A | VALONGO ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS 2023

V-I-A | Valongo Artistic Interventions is a project of artistic intervention in public space, which aims to establish dialogues between the territory and its brands, between its unique and identity heritage and the community (resident and visitor), which aims to be the guiding and intermediary thread in this communication between the universes and territories that compose the Municipality of Valongo.

Over the months, V-I-A travels through all the parishes of Valongo: Alfena, Campo, Ermesinde, Sobrado and Valongo, challenging some of the most recognized national and international urban artists, to observe the marks of the territory and share their visions and testimonies about the same, through this unique instrument that is Urban Art.

In 2022, the artist Mariana Duarte Santos had already visited the Museu da Lousa, to pay tribute, in this symbolic place that is the Museu da Lousa, to all the Men and Women who are part of the history of slate extraction, Pedra Negra, a of the brands of this parish of Campo. However, upon finishing and observing the surroundings, the ambition immediately arose to occupy another wall with a tribute specifically to the role of women, decisive in this universe, whether in manufacturing or its transformation or in the domestic work that supported the men who dedicated themselves to this job.

'A Oficina', based on a photograph belonging to the Valongo Municipal Archive, presents us with one of the tasks that women have always performed, the cutting and treatment of wooden slats used in the construction of blackboards, which we also recorded in one of the factories that are working - Manuel Carvalho da Silva, Lda.

With this second visit and intervention, the tribute to all those who gave many years of their lives and continue to work on this stone, which is the identity mark of this territory, was completed.

This year, V-I-A Valongo Intervenções Artísticas joined Onomatopoeia - Valongo Children's Literature Festival. At the invitation of V-I-A, French artist Perrine Honoré was at the Municipal Library of Valongo, responding to the challenge of bringing lots of color to the garden that surrounds this public facility in the city. We also intended to involve the local community in its execution and 'register' on this long wall, some of Valongo's identity marks, as well as illustrating some of the missions of the Valongo Library Network.

'Open Book' is the result of 6 intense days of work by many hands, and which is undeniably a new and peculiar instrument for creating many and infinite narratives, through which we can talk about biodiversity, well-being, acceptance, of people-planets, LGBTQI+ community, diversity, equity, friendship, imagination, trilobites, Porto mountains, reading, tranquility, Bugios and Mourisqueiros, regueifas and so many more things.

In this mission of participatory creation, during this action V-I-A promoted a set of workshops for students from schools in the city of Valongo that resulted in the experience of working on 2 scales, formats and media: paper and wall. The indoor workshops were guided by illustrator Bárbara R.