4 days in Porto and back in the UK travelling
for the last time as an EU citizen - what to say. Porto is a tough city to move
around - with much to navigate between steep hills and seemingly random acts of
traffic in between dodging trams. Got to see some interesting art and spaces -
sometimes in the same place. Must sees are Serralves
Museude Arte Contemporanea where there was a challenging show by Joana Vasconcelos, great work exploring
gender, the role of the object and all done in a dark humour. The piece titled
Birka used the language and cultural connections embedded and rooted within
textiles to communicate a rich and powerful message - often the idea that
textiles does this is lost on people who think textile design is about
cushions, that is if they think at all.
Hung in the pink Casa Villa there was an obscure show of
Miro’s work specifically focusing on
work where he attempted to destroy the notion of art- lots of burning, hacking,
cutting and painting out areas in black. The
Museu da Misericordia do Porto is a finely tuned museum telling the story
of the space through a small number of stunning objects and should be on a
list. The Clerigos Tower has
tremendous views. Possibly the oddest space is under Igreja de Sao Francisco
where all the Franciscan community were buried. In the main the churches were
the high points, obviously the cathedral but smaller spaces hold exquisite
riches.
And
then there are the tiles - they are everywhere covering exteriors of buildings
and interiors of churches - their state indicates the state of Porto itself - a
bit run down and lost but also rebuilding and renovation around every corner,
developments of modern contemporary buildings next to deserted and abandoned
ruins.
