Newsletter 277
June 2025
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Ruth Baettig (Switzerland) is a performance artist. In 2023 she had a residency in which she performed in a marble quarry: a tiny creature in a giant space. This year she did the opposite (although dressed in the same tight red suit): she prominently occupied a micro-cosmos: a video projection inside a can showed her frolicking and struggling in high grass. A second video performance was recorded in the swimming pool and projected on the bottom of an ancient wash basin. Both installations were surrealistic, intriguing and exceptionally beautiful.
Also good to know:
![]() Evora will become the European Capital of Culture in 2027. A great achievement and a great challenge for “our” city. According to the jury, key for this victory was the theme that Evora choose: “vagar”, which means wander without hurry. It refers to the vision that “slow” can bring better quality in daily live.
We intend to participate with a thematic program on “marble” as related to art, architecture, history, landscape, geology and economy. For this we established a fruitful collaboration with the University departments of Geoscience, Arts&Design and Landscape, Environment&Planning, the municipality of Vila Viçosa, the museum of Evora and the Marble sector. We propose a program covering the whole year of 2027. It will consist of ten exhibitions, ten site specific performances, some field trips and city walks, two symposia and a contest. At this moment we are in the final stage of making appointments with potential partners; all signs are very encouraging and promising. A draft of the full proposal is available on request. A summary is on this page. Our proposal will be submitted as soon as the tender opens, which is now scheduled for the end of June 2025.
In the scope of preparing this proposal we made a book showing some 60 marble-related projects of OBRAS residents over the past 15 years. On 26 September – 4 October Sarah Pedlow will give a workshop on embroidery. Both traditional applications and contemporary art work will be treated. See this page for more info.
In 2027 a group residency is considered: Embodied Geologic Research, guided by Nina Elder (USA). See this page for more info, and www.ninaelder.com for more info on the artist.
Some more about OBRAS:
OBRAS has its main residence in Portugal and an auxiliary residence in Holland. The Holland residence will be closed during most of 2025 for a renovation.
The annual report on the OBRAS activities in 2024 is now available on request. More organisational info on OBRAS (goals, codes of Conduct, members of the board) is on this page. OBRAS is working on a continuation of its activities for the long term. For this, the management will be rejuvenated and the organisational structure will be slightly adapted. It will be done gradually in 2025-2027, to make sure that the residency program will continue largely unchanged. More information with follow in updates of this newsletter. The fox that we spotted for the first time in September (during an Open Studio !), is now visiting our house every few days, saying hello to our cats.
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