WOOL | Covilhã Urban Art 2022

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.

The 9th edition of WOOL*** was inaugurated with the presentation of the book “WOOL | Covilhã Arte Urbana 2011-2021", which celebrates the project's 10 years of activity in its hometown as well as in many other geographies, national and international, in many other formats.

As usual, the mural interventions were executed by two Portuguese and two foreign artists. Cinta Vidal (Spain), Reskate (Spain), Ruído (Portugal) and Francis.co (Portugal) were the artists invited to intervene in the historic center of Covilhã, inspired by the local identity, which we consider to be everything that makes this region a unique place: traditions, music, gastronomy, personalities, history, fauna, flora, etc.

The visual artist and illustrator Mantraste was challenged to guide a community action, with the motto of creating an update of the mythical tapestry on display at the António Lopes Gallery - "Covilhã: factory town, farm town". "Imaginar à Mão" was presented as an invitation to the community to join in the creation of this plasticine panel. And after a few dozens of pairs of hands of all ages, hundreds of shared ideas and many other drawings, always under the attentive guidance of the artist Mantraste, we obtained "Daily Memories". A panel of enormous color in which every detail reflects the vision of many about the city of Covilhã and the region.

In addition to the community action, Mantraste also guided the workshop "Give Shape to Words", in which participants made use of plasticine to create curious illustrations.

In this edition, we once again welcomed the young architect and 'compulsive designer' Nuno Sarmento, who during the 2021 edition was challenged to design WOOL's 10 years as part of an artist residency in drawing. His response was a long roll of continuous drawing, 26m long, which began by taking advantage of the numerous records that exist since its foundation and was completed only on site during the 2021 edition. This drawn roll was finally revealed at the exhibition “10 YEARS OF WOOL” and took a few dozen people to the New Hand Lab who were able to discover the almost 300 small drawings that make up this enormous and precious record of the 1st decade of transformation of the territory and the community through art, thanks to the passage of Nuno Sarmento through Covilhã, where his gaze captured the architecture and people of this land.

The original 26-metre roll was enlarged and turned into a huge canvas almost 50 meters long, which was placed on the Pedestrian Bridge over Ribeira da Carpinteira, accessible to everyone at any time.

For those who couldn't attend the 2021 edition, the screening of the centenary film "The industrial Covilhã, picturesque and its surroundings" by Artur Costa de Macedo (1921) set to live music and featuring an original soundtrack by First Breath After Coma, presented in the 2022 edition of WOOL the record of this unique moment that we live in the historic center of the city.

The program also featured a concert by the talented Fred, who sold out the Miradouro das Portas do Sol and the usual guided tours and talks, which once again aim to promote contact between WOOL, the artists and the community.

* 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."