WOOL | Covilhã Urban Art 2018

Being the direct result of two great passions shared between Lara Seixo Rodrigues, Pedro Seixo Rodrigues and Elisabet Carceller, one for Graffiti / Street Art and other for Covilhã and its history closely related with the textile industry, WOOL | Covilhã Urban Art (*), appeared in 2011 as the first event with these characteristics in Portugal.

Since its foundation, WOOL** set out to use several walls in the city historic center as a support for interventions of urban artists, with the aim of:

• pay tribute to the history of this city as a way of rediscovering its identity;
• awake the interest of the community for Culture and Contemporary Art;
• rehabilitate neglected urban areas through Art, making it accessible to all, in a clear act of democratization of Art and informal learning;
• involve the community in all interventions and actions, so that they take them as their own, as their heritage.

These goals promoted the design of a specific and unique format and modus operandi, that made possible (and still does) to introduce these new expressions of Contemporary Art as tools capable of great social, cultural, economic and urban transformations in a community.

For the 5th EDITION*** of WOOL, once again we brought to Covilhã a group of 4 artists, 2 portuguese and 2 foreigners.Pastel (Argentina), Roc Blackblock (Spain), Aheneah (Portugal) and Frederico Draw (Portugal) were invited to develop interventions in the historic center, once again inspired by the local identity, which we consider to be everything that makes this place unique: traditions, songs, gastronomy, personalities, history, fauna and flora, etc.

The group of parallel activities presented: a illustration workshop conducted by André da Loba at the secondary school, music concerts by Filho da Mãe and Senhor Vulcão and the presentation of a exhibition ‘Wool meets Roubaix’. All of these referred actions and the current guided tours, movies and talks aim to promote more contact between WOOL (and other parallel projects), the artists and citizens.

We must highlight that, for this edition and after the past year of 2017, that we saw Portugal suffer the greatest devastation in the field of forest fires, which took the lives of 115 people, we made the special request to the artist Roc Blackblock to develop a tribute to all the firefighter and especially our local volunteer firefighter’s corporation. WOOL could not miss the opportunity to honor who gives Life for Life.

* the name is a pun between the word WOOL and its near-homophone WALL.
** co-organized with Formas Efémeras
*** WOOL was once again distinguished with the EFFE label: facilitated by the European Festivals Association, which consists of festivals that stand for artistic quality and have a significant impact on the local, national and international level. "Your festival received the following feedback from the International Jury and Hub Experts: It is considered by experts a thoughtful approach to the region's industrial heritage: celebrates it on giving it a new meaning and a new value in a post-industrial context. Although still working on a small scale, this festival has already shown artistic and community-involvement potential. However, experts suggest further development for European and international engagement."