SEEDS - Means for a sustainable art practice

SEEDS is a project that combines Art with Sustainability. The project’s main goal is to gather artists from around Europe to take part in art residencies where they will share knowledge and acquire new skills in order to create artistic materials and tools developed through sustainable practices.

FINAL EXHIBITION LEAFLET
DOWNLOAD HERE

ENGLISH VERSION

PORTUGUESE VERSION

THE ARTISTS

Diana de Brito was born in Lisbon, in 1996. She has since lived in many places, all cities, and is currently based in Porto pursuing a master’s degree in Fine Art. Doesn’t like to talk about it. Would like some more nature around. A little bit of silence.

Alicia Monreal Ortega (Guadalajara, Spain, 1999) is a multidisciplinary designer and artist whose main research has been focused around audiovisual media and story telling. She’s in the evergoing process of finding poetry in life, and right now focused on exploring interspecial relationships between humans and more-than-human, and having fun around biomaterials and carpentry.

Alkyoni usually uses the pseudonym Poisoner, because filling out her surname takes too long. In a parallel universe she occupies her time with sports and tending to the biggest cactus plant of the world, but in this one with neither. She tries gorgonzola once per year yet continues to dislike it and she’s envious of gardens.

Camila Almeida (2001, Sintra) is a licensed artist in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. She explores the natural world and what she can extract from it. Her most recent research revolves around ants and how the complex organization of an anthill compares to the contemporary art world. Camila’s distinctive hallmark is the constant presence of green in her artworks. This choice goes beyond color, permeating the concept and impact of each piece. Green, with its connotations of life, renewal, and harmony, becomes not just a palette but a profound expression of her perspective on the natural world and the intersection between nature and contemporary art.

My name is Carme, I was born and raised in a small town near the sea. My grandfather used to make baskets with the wicker he collected in the late summer from the countryside. My feet touched the sand on the beach and the grass in the garden, and that’s why I was able to put down roots.

I always thought there was a special dignity in those who worked with their hands. It always moved me that with hands, one could make baskets, make pitchers, weave. My grandmother used to weave. There is a special dignity in people who work with the small things, those that grow from the earth, in those who have worked for centuries to transform matter into objects. I would like to work in that way. I have no other intention than to work with my hands.

I am Ana Amarante (b.1997 in Porto, Portugal), an artist and Ph.D. researcher based at the University of Fine Arts in Porto. My research moves around the ecology of mind and action, through rethinking Nature, and wilderness as spaces of subversion. By thinking through all kinds of media, I engage with technology as a way to rethink the industrialized territory with the desecration of machines and sourced human materials. In recent works, I identify the hiperextraction of matter as the anti-mountains of the world, a subtraction of life, an inverse construction into the underworld, an interruption on the animal’s and plant root systems below and one of the main reasons for climate change. It’s through this connection that the objects of art are in themselves self-critics, questioning the link between production and consumption in the Anthropocene.

My name is Eva, I was born in a village in north Greece and I struggle to answer the question where I was raised. I was always making art as a way of playing and expressing my feelings. Growing up I realized that playing is a very serious thing, that’s why I take it seriously in my practice. In my art I use my artistic spontaneity, being in conversation with my unconscious and with the “not knowing” of the process. I am influenced by feelings, dreams, and personal struggles which are also political and are often linked with feminism.

My name is Inés Ballesteros (13/09/1993). I’m from Zaragoza (ES) and the last years I’ve been based in between Portugal and Belgium. I’m an artist working with In situ, collective practices, sculpture , printing matter and publication. Most of my works involve a collaboration with other artists and they actively engage with the audience approaching it as a spontaneous collaborator. The starting point of my artistic projects is to research the social, physical, historical and/or political dimensions of public spaces with a specific interest in public spaces in transition, whose identities are changing or undefined. With a critical and sensitive approach, I seek to create situations where non-regular uses of public space are tested and activated, creating exchanges with the environments I work with and its inhabitants. My practice in the last years has been developed and focus on urban spaces but i’m currently exploring a shift on landscape, focusing more on working on rural and sub-urban areas.

Inês Coelho da Silva (b.1996 in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal) is an artist and researcher based between Porto and London. Her research moves around the politics of food, slow practices, acts of care, and considerations on ecology. By thinking mainly through sculpture, Inês engages with local foodscapes, ethically sourced materials and more-than-human entities in slow impermanent configurations that oppose capitalist velocity. In recent works, she identifies the kitchen table as a multi-layered topos for reflecting upon shared traditions, identities and emotions. Upon this surface, a collection of intimate details and visual poems opens discussions on local food systems, overlooked ecosystems and opportunities for interspecies symbiosis in a shared world.

Leah Saraiva, visual artist. She works directly with the natural world, through drawing, painting, poetry, photography, sculpture and small installations, exploring the idea of encounter between one and other, interior (what inhabits us) and exterior (what we inhabit), mediated by the experience of the sensitive with the world that surrounds us.

“Da terra brotam muitas coisas (many things sprout from the earth), June 2023 – her first individual exhibition, in FBAUL Gallery. She currently attends her Masters in Painting in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. She holds a bachelor degree in Biology, from the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto. She participates in atelier )aberto( since 2013 and frequently exhibits since then.

My name is Nefeli and i am mainly an illustrator. I go by the pseudonym Folie A Deux, which is a french term about a psychotic disorder where two or more people share a delusion, many times without clear connection or proof of their effect on each other.My personal use of the term relates to the subjectivity of everything we believe in and the notion of the true independent self.My work revolves around the human experience, and how the thing that unites and drives us is an inherited feeling of loneliness.I am highly motivated by the idea that an artist should be the embodiment of the ultimate state of their beliefs and personality.I use storytelling in various forms,as the most effective means to grasp and express deeply human experiences that are underlying in our thoughts.I strive to recreate or question those experiences at their core.

Rafael Raposo Pire (b.1994), is a Portuguese visual artist whose body of work consists on photographs and video-performances produced while experiencing dérives made on diverse urban areas. His practice questions the notions of limits within constructed landscapes and how transformative architecture can be.

He holds a post-graduation in Multimedia Art (2020) and another in Contemporary Photography Speeches (2018) by the Faculty of Fine Arts In Lisbon. He has a BA in Photography and Visual Culture (2017) from IADE University in Lisbon, and enrolled at University of Europe in Berlin where he has published the photobook Alone Together (2017) under the mentorship of Michael Danner.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

SEEDS – Means for a sustainable art practice

This project will empower 12 participants, from EU sending partners, ensuring diversity, and multiculturalism.

The artistic residencies will include several different workshops and mentorship sessions with mentors and facilitators that will share how to practice sustainable art with techniques that may be used in drawing, painting, printing and sculpture, using materials that are environmentally friendly and do not create waste. These workshops will be followed by periods of free production where artists will experiment to develop their artworks using the skills they have acquired. During the project, the artists will have the opportunity to share their work and artist progress in exhibitions and presentations. In order to create awareness about project thematics participants will actively engage with targeted communities – this way we will insure better dissemination of project outputs and higher communication reach.

This includes the production of different digital output formats, exhibitions and publications.

GOALS

SEEDS aims to support young and emerging artists, raise awareness on
environmental and climate-change challenges and empower them to adopt
greener practices whilst promoting active citizenship through active
learning. A major shift needs to be done and the solution must be local, small-scale brought by active citizens and NGO´s, and involve youth – With this in mind, the consortium has skills, motivation and know-how to develop actions in collaboration with the participating artists that could help exposed targeted groups to tackle the current art practices environmental problems.

Objective 1

To implement holistic solution-driven models, using methodologies like Permaculture and non-formal education to address sustainability in the art world.

Objective 2

To develop knowledge and competences using sustainable tools and materials.

Objective 3

To develop different outputs (digital communication, exhibitions, publications, & website) that can serve as means to develop and disseminate knowledge and competences using sustainable tools and materials .

GUESTS OF HONOR

Linda Weintraub is a curator, educator, artist, and author of several popular books about contemporary art, with a focus on the emergence and proliferation of eco art. She is the author of WHAT’s NEXT? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art (Intellect Books 2018), To LIFE! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet” (University of California Press 2012), and Avant-Guardians (Artnow Publications 2007), a series of textlets that include EcoCentric Topics: Pioneering Themes for Eco-Art; Cycle-Logical Art: Recycling Matters for Eco-Art; EnvironMentalities: Twenty-two Approaches to Eco-Art. She is also the author of In the Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Artists and Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art’s Meaning in Contemporary Society. She served as the director of the Edith C. Blum Art Institute located on the Bard College campus where she toured many of the fifty exhibitions she curated, and published over twenty catalogues. Weintraub was the Henry Luce Professor of Emerging Arts at Oberlin College; and contributor to the Nomad9 MFA program at the University of Hartford. The title of her forthcoming book is Who Do You Eat? explores the ecological implications of eating. All these publications are designed to make the outposts of vanguard art accessible to broad audiences. Weintraub has applied environmental concerns to her personal life by managing a sustainable homestead where she practiced permaculture. Her own studio practice affirms these principles.

With a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Évora, she worked as coordinator of the maintenance service of Serralves Park (1995-1999). For 10 years she worked as a designer of exterior spaces.
Since 2010, she is responsible for the Chão das Artes – Botanical Garden, in its restoration, maintenance, enhancement and research, also developing several activities of connection between Art and Science. Since then she researches on the use of plants in plastic arts and explores different techniques, including: making paper from plants, vegetable inks, vegetable dyeing, ecoprint, among others.

Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez, born in Amsterdam and based in Mexico City, is a curator, writer, and researcher working at the intersection of art and ecology. She is the founder of the Green Art Lab Alliance (established in 2012); a network comprising sixty art organizations across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The mission of the alliance is to foster relationships that contribute to social and environmental justice, akin to the interconnected nature of mycelium. Over the span of more than a decade, she has conducted research throughout (East) Asia, Latin America, and Europe, focusing on artists who propose alternative ways of living and working, ultimately leading to more resilient communities and systems. She worked for organizations such as Julie’s Bicycle (United Kingdom), Asia-Europe Foundation (Singapore), Cape Farewell (United Kingdom), Labverde (Brazil), and TransArtists (Netherlands) and wrote for various international magazines. She founded the Nature Research Department at the Jan van Eyck Academie (Netherlands), the Van Eyck Food Lab (2018), and the Future Materials Bank (2020), an open-source database of sustainable materials for artists. She has been curator-in-residence in various art institutions, including Kunst Haus Wien (Austria, 2017), Capacete (Brazil, 2019–2020), Valley of the Possible (Chile, 2022), Bamboo Curtain Studio (Taiwan, 2015–2016), and colectivo amasijo (Mexico, 2021). She is a self-proclaimed “mycophile,” exploring the application of a mycological lens in defining fair models of collaboration and (self) organization. Her debut book, “Let’s Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts,” sharing 12 teachings of the world of fungi, and is published by Valiz (NL).

CONSORTIUM

ASSOCIAÇÃO QUINTA DAS RELVAS (PORTUGAL)

Quinta das Relvas Association – Arts and Sustainability, the project promoter, is based in an eco-farm in the center of Portugal, Aveiro ́s district. The NGO has been working on the fields of art and sustainability since 2016, through Erasmus+ projects, workcamps, workshops and residencies that follow the principles of non-formal education. Up until now the two main areas (Arts & Sustainability) have small intersections and it’s one of the main goals of this project to develop a systematic approach and tools to interconnect these two big fields of action. For one side, The NGO has a big sustainability department that focuses on Permaculture as the main working methodology to manage the venue and all its components and on the other side the art department brings creativity, recognition and human frame to the general equation. The Art department has been focusing on giving opportunities to young artists and valuing their works, through artist residencies, mentoring, exhibitions and art festivals, with a strong social and educational component.

OFICINAS DO CONVENTO – ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL DE ARTE E COMUNICAÇÃO (PORTUGAL)

Oficinas do Convento is a cultural non-profit association that has its headquarters in Convento de S. Francisco in Montemor-o-Novo, that aim to follow the objectives:

• To rescue and restructure the headquarters (Convento S. Francisco), creating material conditions for carrying out research activities, dissemination, training and production in the arts and culture and heritage defense;

• To support and develop of actions that contribute to the development, understanding it as a process of improvement of cultural and material conditions, in close collaboration with local authorities and competent individuals, public or private, domestic or foreign;

• To promotion, support and create artistic and professional training actions, enabling the achievement of the purposes indicated in the preceding paragraphs.

CHORUS (GREECE)

Chorus is a non-profit organization founded to build a bridge between arts, education and society. Its mission is to promote humanitarian principles and values, to trigger public debate and mobilize the public on key social issues, to support the proactiveness of the Civil Society, as well as to foster respect for the rights of each individual through contemporary artistic creation, education and cultural activity in general. All CHORUS members believe that socially active citizens can -and must- shape the future with their words, passion, and attitude towards life.

RURAL CONTEMPORÁNEA (SPAIN)

Rural Contemporánea is an Association founded in 2009 that promotes social innovation and cultural agitation in rural areas. It is located in a territory with a great environmental and cultural heritage that requires management difficulties, and aims to follow the purposes:

• To promote the rural environment as a territory for innovation and socio-cultural development;

• To carry out research and events that transgress the tradition-modernity dialectic.

• To promote active citizenship through cooperation with different civil organizations.

• To promote permaculture.

• To disseminate research work, artistic projects and social projects that are linked to the rural environment and create work networks with people and entities, rural and urban, at a regional, national and international level.

• To revitalize and promote the cultural potential of the local in a global context.

CALL

Phase I – Artistic Residences and Local exhibitions

WHEN AND WHERE?

1 st – 3rd september 2023 at Faculty of Fine-Arts of the University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal)

4th – 28 th september 2023 at Quinta das Relvas (Albergaria-a-Velha, Portugal)
1 st -28th october 2023 at Oficinas do Convento (Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal)

WHAT?

Throughout two months, participants will be invited to research and develop critical thinking and artistic techniques for a more sustainable art practice within an artistic residence framework.

To start, participants will enroll in a series of conferences held at the Faculty of Fine-Arts of the University of Lisbon. Here, they will meet the project guests of honour – Linda Weintraub (USA), Sónia Francisco (PT) and Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez (NL) – as well as the hosting and partner organizations and a series of presentations by entities and researchers dedicated to this field of action: Arts and Sustainability, in relation.

If you would like to submit a paper you can do it until the 30th of june at https://www.belasartes.ulisboa.pt/seeds-means-for-a-sustainable-art-practice/

Then, two independent residencies will take place: the first will be held at Quinta das Relvas (Albergaria-a-Velha, Portugal) and will focus on drawing and painting materials/techniques; the second will be held at Oficinas do Convento (Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal) and will focus on sculpture and ceramics materials/techniques. ´

At Quinta das Relvas, the project will start with workshops led by Linda Weintraub, Sónia Francisco and Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez, focusing on giving participants the needed skill-set and critical framework to trigger their creative process. Then, the remaining three weeks will be of individual experiment and production (enriched by study visits) that will culminate in a local exhibition at Cineteatro Alba.

The second artistic residence will allow participants to continue their artistic research through different mediums, now at a 3D level. Known by their vast experience on earth-related materials, Oficinas do Convento will lead several workshops focused on these techniques. At the end of the residence, the results will be exhibited at their headquarters (an ancient monastery in Montemor-o-Novo city center).

Phase II – Community engagement activities and Project dissemination

WHEN AND WHERE?

29th February – 6th March 2024 at CHORUS (Eleusis, Greece) + 7th – 18th March 2024 at Rural Contemporànea (Monfero, Spain). During this period participants will travel to Greece and Spain and create community driven actions with the acquired know-how, doing workshops, conferences, and exhibitions. In this period, we will also deliver all material related with the main digital outputs and share it throughout all communication channels (official channels and partners).

Phase III – Final exhibition and other dissemination outputs

WHEN AND WHERE?

May 2024 – Lisbon, Portugal In May 2024, at the Fine-Arts Faculty of the University of Lisbon, all the outcomes of the project will be gathered and presented at a final exhibition*. These expected outcomes are:

– Artistic works (created at Phase I in Quinta das Relvas and Oficinas do Convento);

– A documentary;

– A tool kit;

– A publication;

– Website /platform with educational videos.

*This will be a closing session where participants are not required to attend; nevertheless, online participation will be encouraged.

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FINAL EXHIBITION LEAFLET
DOWNLOAD HERE

ENGLISH VERSION

PORTUGUESE VERSION

THE ARTISTS

Diana de Brito

Alicia Monreal Ortega

Alkyoni Papakonstantopoulou

Camila Almeida

Carme Ayala

Ana Amarante

Eva Manaridou

Inés Ballesteros

Inês Coelho da Silva

Leah Saraiva

Folie a Deux

Rafael Raposo Pires

ABOUT THE PROJECT

SEEDS – Means for a sustainable art practice