Newsletter  164
January 2019

After a full month of clear skies nature decided that the almond can start blossoming. In the night we hear the eagle owl screaming for a partner.
We are nearly ready with selecting our residents for 2019 and are in full action for the events that we are organizing this year.

If you can: please put June 6, 6pm in your agenda. We will probably have two exhibition openings and a dance performance.

For Rob Monaghan (Ireland) we are organizing an exhibition in the INATEL Gallery in Évora (June-July). He in 2017and 2018 explored the abandoned marble quarries with photography, video, collecting “found objects” and by swimming in some of the quarry lakes.
Although several more works will be exhibited, with no doubt the central piece will be a video showing a performance by Phyllis Akinyi (Denmark), partly staying at the edge of a ravine and partly standing in a lake. Rob created a highly artistic staging and Phyllis made a breath-taking performance. The video will get a sound composition by Miguel Noya (Venezuela), who also last year had a residency with us.

Also in the INATEL Gallery, but in another place Katharina Fröschl-Roßboth will have a photo-exhibition. During several residencies in different countries Katharina made photo portraits of 31-years old women. She focussed on their daily life and on the feeling of many women that an age of round 31 is a turning point. In 2017 in Portugal Katharina did several beautiful photo-projects, all worth to be presented. But this exhibition is about “31”. One of the portraits is of Mara, an Évora based fado singer.

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Also good to know:

Cody Healy-Connely (USA) told us that his short animation movie Glitch Noir has been selected for the fourth time for screening in a film festival. This time it will be in the United Arab Emirates. The movie is a thriller about malfunctioning drones. Cody made it during his residency in OBRAS-Holland.

Also good news is coming from Sherry Wiggins (USA). The work that she made together with Luís Branco (Portugal) in 2017 has been chosen for the Month of Photography in Denver (1-31 March; RedlineDenver). Sherry and Luís had a project in nature near to OBRAS-Portugal. Sherry was the model and Luís the photographer, but it became much more: a contemplation on human/nature relations and a kind of registration of a site-specific performance, dedicated to nature embracing a middle aged woman.

Nature Intimes is the title of an exhibition of Natalie Magniez (MPTVA, Ville D´Avray, France; from 29 January until 23 February). Natalie had a residency at OBRAS Portugal in October last year. Apart from some smaller works she made two very big paintings, one figurative and one abstract. Both are powerful, personal and beautiful and between figuration and abstraction. In her residency she explored “the space between”: between past and future, between being a daughter and a mother. She tried to portray her awareness of passage, transmission and heritage. This body of work is presented in this exhibition together with other works of the past two years.

White Works was the title for an exhibition with Phil Moody (USA) in the Palácio dos Marqueses da Praia e Montforte, in Estremoz. Information is on the residents 2018 page. A beautiful catalogue is available at OBRAS and the artist.
Part of the exhibition will soon be shown in several locations in South Carolina (USA). This is the result of a statewide contest in which Phil gained the second price. Congrats, Phil!
Phil started a collaboration with Luís Lopes and Ruben Martins of the GeoScience department of Évora University, for which returned for a short visit in November. He may produce a book together with them.

In January this year, Scott Wixon (USA), resident at OBRAS in 2018 has an online exhibition at Phoenix Gallery, most of them being his “Portuguese” works: abstract paintings with biomorphic and expressionistic forms in bright colors.

Form 25 until 25 January, Phyllis Akinyi (Denmark) has a dance performance, accompanied by Stephan Jarl on percussion: (Bådteatret, Nyhavn 16, 1051 Kopenhagen). Phyllis developed this performance partly during her residency in 2018.
The performance deals with identity, cultural roots and tradition. Phyllis  is a Danish / Kenyan performer who works mainly as flamenco dancer in Scandinavia and Spain. In this performance she mixed flamenco with Scandinavian post-modernity and Kenyan ritual dance in a quest for her own identity.
Phyllis will return to Portugal in June, this year in the scope of an exhibition by Rob Monaghan and to do a performance.

And to close this newsletter with:
Some weeks ago, OBRAS was invited by the Cultural Department of Évora Municipality for a small meeting. To our own surprise we were invited to actively participate in Évora Cultural Capital of Europe. Although it still has to win the bid from two other candidates, the request is very honorable and stimulating. But it also forces us to think about the very long term: it will happen in 2027!